
Class. 



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The Navajos 



ART thou, O Navajo, 
The progeny of some prehistoric race. 
Whose history lies buried 'neath the sands 
On which thou, these centuries, hast trod ? 
Or hast thou no traditions of thy coming. 
Or whence, or where, through eJl these years 
The fates have led thee on ? 
Surely thou hast not always dwelt 
In this vast solitude of sepulchral gloom ! 

O. H. L. 



4 



A NAVAJO BLANKET 

Designed and Woven by "Meh-li-to be Day-zhie." 
For J. B. Moore. Indian Trader and Collector. Crystal. New Mexico. 



Sltttb ^xBtot'x^B of Nortli Amrrtran 3(itbmttB 



THE NAVAJOS 



BY 

OSCAR H. LIPPS 




CEDAR RAPIDS. IOWA 
THE TORCH PRESS 
:: :: :: 1909 :: :: :: 






LiSRA.RY of CONGRESS 
Two copies Heceived 

WiAh 29 ^y09 

: CLASS A- ^Xc. >!o, 

■2-3 0^.? 3,3 



Copyright 1909 
By Oscar H. Lipps 



FOREWORD 

Little Histories of North American Indians is 
designed to give in plain and simple form a concise 
and authentic history of the North American Indians 
by tribes. So far, most of the literature giving relia- 
ble accounts of the life, manners, customs, habits, 
religion, mythology, arts, and crafts of the various 
Indian tribes of our country is contained chiefly in 
government reports and in scientific works which are 
either not readily accessible to the reading public, or 
are too scientific and technical to be enjoyable and 
entertaining to the average general reader. The aim, 
then, is a popular and reliable little history of our 
North American Indians which will, in a measure, 
satisfy the ever increasing desire on the part of 
Americans for a more intimate knowledge of the "first 
of all Americans." 

It has not been the intention to present in this 
little book — the first of the series — any new facts 
concerning the Navajos, but rather to bring together 
the facts already known of the tribe. 

While not intended as a contribution to ethnolog- 
ical or anthropological science, still it has been the con- 
stant aim of the author to confine his statements to the 



facts, and to this end no pains have been spared in 
consulting acknowledged authorities on the subject, 
all of which have been given credit throughout the 
pages of the book. 

0. H. L. 

Nez Perces Indian Agency- 
Fort Lapwai, Idaho 
September 21, 1908 



FROM THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS 

Washington, Oct. 1, 1908. 
My dear Mr. Lipps: 

I am more than pleased at what you tell me of the 
design of your booklet on the Navajos — your hope 
that it might result in drawing from other writers 
similar little books on different Indian tribes. They 
would make a collection of value to that part of the 
public who take an interest in the history of our 
aborigines without having the time at command to 
study the more elaborate and ambitious works on the 
subject. 

Hoping with you that your essay may prove only 
the first of a series, I am 

Sincerely yours, 

Francis E. Leupp. 



CONTENTS 

Page 
Chapter I. Their Discovery ... 15 

Westward the Course of Conquest Takes its 
Way — Spanish Explorers Discover the Indians 
of the Southwest. 

Chapter II. Their Country ... 21 

A Desert Country — Their Reservation — A Sum- 
mer Day in Navajo Land — Cliff Dwellings 
and Ancient Ruins. 

Chapter III. The People ... 32 

Early History — Evidence of a Pre-Historic Race 

— Government. 

Chapter IV. Their IManners and Customs 40 

A Pastoral People — Their Home — Their Do- 
mestic Life — Marriage — The Wedding Cere- 
mony — Slavery — The Medicine-man — The 
Discipline of their Life — Games and Sports — 
The Burial. 

Chapter V. Wars and Treaties . . 50 

As Warriors — Kit Carson — The Last Navajo 
War — General Sibley Invades New Mexico — 
The Proclamation — Causes of Indian Wars — 
Their Capture — The Bosque Redondo — Their 
Return to the Reservation — Treaties. 

Chapter VI. Their Religion and Morals . 63 

A Pantheist — Superstition — Morals. 

Chapter VII. Navajo Mythology . . 67 

Myth and Tradition — Some Navajo Myths. 

Chapter VIII. Ceremonies ... 74 

Ha-tal-i — The Mountain Chant — The Fire Play 

— Sand Paintings. 



Chapter IX. Their Arts and Crafts . 81 

History of the Art of Weaving — The Pesh-li- 
kai, or Silversmith. 

Chapter X. Civilization .... 94 

As Viewed by the White Man — His Progress — 
His Future. 



APPENDIX 

Page 
The Navajo Indians and Their Country . 101 

Affidavit of General James H. Carleton, U. S. 
Army. 

Causes of the Navajo Wars. Slavery . 106 

Affidavit of Chief Justice Kirby Benedict. 

The Trouble Between the Navajos and the 

Soldiers ...... 110 

Affidavit of Colonel Collins. 

A Navajo Superstition Leads to the Killing 

OF A Negro Slave ..... 113 

Affidavit of Dr. Louis Kennon. 

Appointment of Indian Agents. Treatment 

OF the Navajos by Mexicans . . . 115 

Affidavit of Major Griner. 

Plans of the Military to Subjugate the 
Navajos 118 

Official Letter of General Carleton. 

Kit Carson Invades the Navajos' Strong- 
hold ....... 120 

Official Report of General Carleton. 

Kit Carson Receives Honorable Mention . 121 

Official Report of General Carleton. 

Report of the Condition of the Navajo 
Prisoners of War at the Bosque Redondo, 

New Mexico 122 

Official Report of General Carleton. 

Twenty Years After the War. Report of 
THE United States Indian Agent on the 
Condition of the Navajos . . . 128 

By C. E. Vandeaver, U. S. Indian Agent. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



A Navajo Blanket , 

(Courtesy, J. B. Moore) 
A Navajo Patriarch 
Map op Navajo Reservation 
Cliff Dwellers' Sandals 
A Cliff Dwelling . 

(Courtesy, The Southern Worhman) 

A Navajo Woman in Native Dress 
Navajo Indians Trading . 
(Courtesy, U. S. Hollister) 

Navajo Wea\^rs 

A Navajo Winter Hogan 

(Courtesy, The Southern Worlcman) 
A Navajo Head Man 
A Navajo Sil\^rsmith 
Navajo Women Shearing Sheep 
Navajo Jewelry and Silverware 

(Courtesy, J. B. Moore) 

Navajo Agency and School, Fort 

ance, Arizona 

A Navajo Weaver . 

Navajo Shepherds . 

(Courtesy, The Southern Workman) 

Crossing the Desert 

(Courtesy, The Southern Workman) 
A Navajo Athlete . 



Frontispiece 

facing 16 ^ 

facing 24 '' 

facing 32 ' 

facing 40 . 

facing 48 "^ 

facing 56 ^ 

facing 60- 

facing 64 

facing 72 

facing 80 

facing 88 . 

facing 92 



Defi- 



facing 96 
facing 104 
facing 112 

facing 120 

facing 128 



A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE NAVAJOS 

CHAPTER I 

Their Discovery 

From the accession of the house of Tras- 
tamara, about the middle of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, Spain dates the rise of 

Westward the her greatness as a world pow- 
Course of Conquest er. In the tenth and eleventh 

takes its Way centuries the Mohammedans 
flourished and prospered in 
the southern part of the peninsula, and the Moorish 
kingdom of Granada bore witness to a civilization 
far more brilliant and splendid than Christian Spain 
had hitherto been able to present. Here the lamps 
of learning were kept burning while all the rest of 
western Europe groped in darkness, and here the 
Arabian philosophers had transplanted the sciences 
of the East from whence they found their way be- 
yond the Pyrenees and the Rhine, and pene- 
trated the land of the Anglo-Saxons across the 
English Channel. Meanwhile, Spain had accom- 
plished little that goes to make a wise and powerful 
nation. 

However, in the course of events, Spain evolved 
into a nation. In the year 1469 Aragon and Castile 
were united in one kingdom by the marriage of 



16 THE NAVAJOS 

Ferdinand, surnamed the Catholic, and Isabella. 
Ferdinand, while possessing ability, was both a bigot 
and a despot; Isabella was his faithful consort. His 
overbearing spirit and intolerant mind found fitting 
expression in the cruel deeds of the bloody Inqui- 
sition. His bitter persecution of the Jews was no 
less cruel and unrelenting than was his hatred for 
the Moors and heretics. The meek and unoffending 
Israelites were banished to the number of hundreds 
of thousands, and their property confiscated. Naked 
and utterly helpless, they submissively turned their 
faces to other countries, seeking refuge in Portugal, 
France, Italy, and the East. This act was a great 
blow to the future affluence of Spain. The boom- 
erang returned to paralyze the hand that sent it. 
The nation's life blood had been drained out. 
Thrifty enterprise waned and the life of trade with- 
ered and died. The springs of the nation's com- 
merce, being thus deprived of their source, ran putrid 
for a while, then dried up altogether. The Moorish 
Granada was also taken by the Christians and three 
millions of her people fled to Africa and the East. 
The hope of the nation had departed — both glory and 
gold had vanished. New worlds must now be con- 
quered and new sources of revenue added to her pos- 
sessions. 

Christopher Columbus now arrived upon the 
scene, discovered a new world and thus saved the 
day for Spain. The hope of the nation lay 
beyond the Atlantic. Turning her eyes to the West, 
with sword in one hand and crucifix in the other. 




A Navajo Patriarch 



THE NAVAJOS 17 

she bid priest and soldier embark for the New 
"World. Knighthood was in flower and the spirit 
of conquest the all-absorbing passion — the seeking 
of gold and the saving of souls the objects of 
adventure. 

And lo! westward the course of Spanish con- 
quest took its way. 

In 1493, the year after the discovery of the 

New "World, Pope Alexander VI issued his famous 

Bull of Demarcation, in which 

Spanish explorers he gave to Spain all that por- 

discover the Indians tion of undiscovered country 

of the Southwest lying beyond an imaginary 

line one hundred miles west 

of the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. Upon 

this Spain based her claims to the New "World. 

Not until 1513 did European explorers venture 
into the interior of North America. Previous to this 
time they had merely touched upon the shores of the 
great western continent. The great beyond appeared 
to them dark, void, and impenetrable. Balboa in that 
year crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and six years 
later Cortez landed on the east coast of Mexico. 

The same year that Cortez set out to explore 
Mexico (1519), Pineda, another Spanish explorer, 
sailed through the Gulf of Mexico, skirting the 
shores of the continent from Florida to the province 
of Mexico. He soon returned to Spain, giving glowing 
accounts of all he had seen. He told DeNarvaez about 
the natives he had found in the lower Mississippi 



18 THE NAVAJOS 

valley; how gaudily they were attired; how !ricih 
they were in gold and precious gems. Excited 
by these alluring descriptions of the Mississippi In- 
dians and their brilliant golden ornaments, DeNar- 
vaez set out in 1528 with an expedition to explore 
and conquer that portion of the country lying to 
the north and west of the Gulf of Mexico. 

He passed through Louisiana and Texas and 
wandered westward, crossing the Rio Grande, pass- 
ing through Chihuahua and Sonora, and arriving at 
Culiacan, through which he passed, reaching the 
west coast in 1536. When he returned to Spain his 
account of the wonderful country over which he 
had traveled, and of the more wonderful people he 
had encountered on the way, aroused a keen desire 
in the adventurous Spaniards to make more thorough 
explorations. They believed that somewhere in this 
wonderful country would be found the Foun- 
tain of Youth, and what was still more to be desired, 
the fabled Seven Cities which they believed to con- 
tain vast stores of piled-up wealth. 

One of the Indian tribes of the Southwest had 
preserved a story of Seven Caves in which they 
said their ancestors once lived long years before, 
and the Spaniards thought these to be the legendary 
Seven Cities. Believing them to be located some- 
where to the north, the Spanish governor of Mexico, 
Mendoza, sent forth Fray Marcos, a Catholic monk, 
with a few followers in search of them. He passed, 
en route, through a number of Indian villages, in 
each of which he was directed to the north. He 



THE NAVAJOS 19 

arrived at last in sight of the pueblo village of 
Zuni, New Mexico, located about forty miles south 
of the present town of Gallup, and still the home 
of the Zuni Indians. There were at this time, 
it is said, seven of these pueblos comprising the 
village, all of which were inhabited. Advance 
guards were sent forward on a reconnoitering expe- 
dition to meet the chief of the tribe and announce 
the arrival of the exploring party. They never re- 
turned and it is supposed they were killed by the 
Indians. Fray Marcos became greatly frightened 
at this unkindly reception and hurriedly returned 
to Mexico, having only viewed the Zuni pueblos 
from a distance. He understood the name of the 
city he had discovered to be Cibola, and he called 
these seven Zuni pueblos the Seven Cities of Cibola. 

An ancient Spanish legend relates that many 
years ago when the Arabs overran the Spanish 
peninsula and took captive the town of Lisbon, 
a certain priest of that town fled with many follow- 
ers to a group of islands located somewhere in the 
Sea of Darkness where he founded seven cities. 
These cities, so the legend relates, contained hidden 
treasures of untold wealth. If they might only find 
the fabled stream to drink from which meant life and 
love and youth and beauty, and then discover these 
hidden cities of stored-up wealth, their happiness 
would be complete and the millennium be at hand. 

In 1540, the year following the return of Fray 
Marcos to Mexico, Francisco de Coronado marched 
against the Zuni Indians with three hundred soldiers 



20 THE NAVAJOS 

and eight hundred Mexican Indians. On arriving 
at Zuni he discovered that Fray Marcos had 
seen only an Indian village and not the fabled Seven 
Cities. From Zuni Coronado sent Pedro de Tobar, 
Juan de Padilla and about twenty men to discover 
Tusayan (Moqui). On their way thither they passed 
through the country of the Navajo Indians. They 
visited the Hopi villages of Oraibi and Walpi and 
there heard about a great river beyond. Returning 
to Zuni they reported this to Coronado who imme- 
diately sent out Lopez de Cardenas with twelve men 
to find this river. And thus was discovered the Grand 
Canyon of the Colorado. 

And from this also comes our first knowledge of 
the Navajos. 



CHAPTER II 
Their Country 

Wliat variegated and wonderful formations we 
encounter in traveling one hundred miles overland 
across this rugged, ragged, desert 
A Desert Country country! The whole landscape 
presents a spectacle of deep 
sepulchral gloom. Old ocean beds, piled-up debris 
of volcanic eruptions and the remains of pre-historic 
ages are everywhere to be seen. 

If what geologists tell us of the formation of the 
earth be true — that the vast mountains of piled-up 
strata are of sedimentary formation — then the pro- 
cess of infiltration through which these immense piles 
of stone have gone in forming, must have required 
ages of time. 

Something over 5,000 years ago we find the Chal- 
dean monarchy at the height of its affluence and 
power. The great level plain between the Tigris and 
the Euphrates rivers was interlaced with a net-work 
of irrigating canals, and the luxuriant growth of 
grain and vegetation in this great alluvial valley ex- 
cited the wonder and admiration of the Greeks so 
that the historian, Herodotus, like our o^vn Horace 
Greeley when writing about the large trees of Cali- 
fornia, would not tell the whole truth for fear his 
veracity might be doubted. The Assyrian and Baby- 



22 THE NAVAJOS 

Ionian empires successively rose and fell in the land 
of the ancient Chaldeans, and the country where the 
hanging gardens of Babylon once spread their rich 
perfumes over a land of emerald green, to-day pre- 
sents a scene as ruined and desolate as that of our own 
dry, sand-choked desert of the great Southwest. 

To the speculative mind the comparison might 
suggest the possibility of a time, in years vastly re- 
mote, when this old dry desert of Navajo land pre- 
sented a very different appearance, and supported a 
population well advanced in the arts and sciences of 
civilization. 

Situated in the northeastern portion of Arizona 
and in the northwestern part of New Mexico is the 

Navajo reservation, now the larg- 
Their Reservation est Indian reservation in the 

United States, comprising as 
it does nearly ten million acres, or nearly fifteen 
thousand square miles, being equal in size to the 
combined areas of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
Rhode Island. 

The home of the Navajo Indian has always been 
considered one of the most arid and barren portions 
of the Great American Desert. The average rainfall 
in this region is from ten to fourteen inches, and 
is usually confined to two short seasons. The valleys 
and lower levels are destitute of trees, save for the 
cottonwoods that fringe the banks of the arroyas and 
running streams, though the mesas and mountains are 
fairly well covered with piny on, cedar, oak, juniper, 



THE NAVAJOS 23 

white pine, and spruce. The elevation is from four to 
ten thousand feet above sea level, with an attendant 
climate unsuited to the luxuriant growth of vegeta- 
tion. The yucca, cactus, sage brush, gramma grass, 
and a few weeds and wild flowers are to be found in the 
valleys and on the lower plateaus, while much of the 
country is a barren waste with few running streams 
or springs and with little else to invite either man or 
beast. 

The country is extremely diversified in character, 
consisting as it does of broad valleys and rolling prai- 
ries in the northern and western portions along the 
San Juan and Colorado rivers, while the eastern and 
southeastern portions are greatly broken by deep can- 
yons, towering mountains, elevated table lands, and 
irregular, broken valleys. Vast strata of bituminous 
coal extend north and south through almost the entire 
length of the reservation, some veins being thirty 
feet in thickness. No precious metals or other miU' 
erals of value have ever been discovered in this ter- 
ritory. 

Owing to the high altitude, the winters are long 
and cold and the season for growing and maturing 
crops is correspondingly short. A little corn, wheat, 
oats and alfalfa, and a variety of vegetables are gro^vn 
in the valleys where water can be had for irrigating. 
In many of the valleys fruit culture can be carried 
on with profit, but since his peach orchards were 
laid waste by the soldiers forty years ago, the Navajo 
has paid little or no attention to the growing of fruit. 



24 THE NAVAJOS 

His staple agricultural product is Indian corn. If 
he can only raise a crop of corn his sustenance is as- 
sured for the year. 

Although a sun-burnt desert of sand, sage brush, 
cactus, and piled-up debris of great volcanic eruptions, 
the Navajo country is a land of enchantment. Here 
Nature seems to have forgotten her modesty and laid 
bare to vulgar gaze the inmost recesses of her anatomy. 
Her very vitals, loose and dismembered, lie in massive, 
mournful state where they were expelled centuries 
ago by the mighty power of some pent-up energy or 
internal strife. Vast beds of lava and masses of melt- 
ed rock and minerals lie everywhere in huge 
mountains. The traveler in Navajo land, gazing on 
the form of a world in the making, finds himself 
transported to another planet, as it were, ere he is 
aware. Here he sees written, as if by the fingers of 
Divinity, the story of the creation; and as he views 
the mighty, massive, wonderfully illustrated and awe- 
inspiring pages of Nature's book, as it lies opened 
before his vision, he sees not God in burning bush, 
but rather meets him face to face. 

The white man is out of place in this veritable 
holy of holies. Unlike the native red man he does 
not adorn and beautify the nude landscape. At the 
approaching footsteps of civilization Nature seems to 
seek seclusion in the pavilion of her own magnifi- 
cent mazes, and to reserve her beauty and her 
smiles for her own children and sympathetic wor- 
shipers. And if it be true that man is happy in 
proportion as he is in harmony with his sur- 




Map of Navajo Reservation 



THE NAVAJOS 25 

roundings, then the Navajo Indian is truly a 
happy being. In his daily life he unconscious- 
ly fulfils the injunction uttered by Aristotle 
more than two thousand years ago when he said, 
"Know the world of nature of which you are a part, 
and you will be yourself and know yourself without 
thought or effort. The things you see you are. ' ' 

Listen to this beautiful description of a summer 
day in Navajo land by Mr. U. S. Hollister, as given 
in his book, The Navajo and His Blanket : 

Slowly the darkness of early morn falls back 
before the shafts of a rising sun. The keen arrows 
of light pierce its mantle, and it 
A Summer Day in is driven fleeting to the west. 
Navajo Land The sun is master; his morning 
rays dry the earth. The vapor 
rises from the streams in the valley, at first in little 
threads of white, like smoke from a dying campfire; 
then gathering volume, it ascends until the course of 
the stream is plainly marked by a pearly white 
drapery that curtains the brightness of the new-born 
day. Lazily expanding, and growing darker, the mist 
assumes the form of threatening clouds, and these float 
up the canyons and brush against the mountain sides, 
spraying the verdure with diamonds of dew, and bap- 
tizing it in the name of the glorious Orb of Day, — the 
Indian's Father of All. Then they whiten again as 
they are bleached by the sun, and, stirred by the 
breeze, go tumbling over the mountains like great 
fleecy sheep at play. Beautiful in contrast with the 
purple haze of the ranges, the azure of the sky, and 
the light of the morning, yet they soon separate into 
slender strands of mist which wander off into space 
and are lost. 



26 THE NAVAJOS 

And now everything is bathed in sunshine. The 
snow glistens on the peaks; the odor of pine and of 
cedar fills the air; the pure ozone tempts the lungs to 
full expansion. The world of wilderness is awake. 

And this is Morning in Navajo land. 

As the noontime approaches, the sun seems to 
pause overhead, when, in a dome of purest blue, it 
glows and burns and parches the earth ; but under its 
influence, the valleys have revealed their wealth of 
wild flowers, cactus, sage and bright leafed shrubs that 
rival the barbaric colors of oriental drapery. The 
mountains, with their gleaming caps of snow, stand 
out in strong relief, in blue and gray and purple tints, 
and in ever shifting lights and shadows. An eagle, 
slowly and in great circles, soars high in the blue 
sky. A coyote calls to his mate across the miles be- 
tween mesa and mesa, or, in shade of cedar, idles or 
naps the day away — lazy vagabond waiting for the 
night. On a distant trail, a Navajo on horse-back, 
watching his sheep, shades his eyes and looks across 
the vallej^ into the vast expanse of light, and in the 
distance he can see the smoke from the hut he calls 
home. He looks at the grandeur of the whole scene 
through the rarefied air of an elevation of more than 
a mile above the sea, through an atmosphere which, 
acting like the lense of a telescope, brings far distant 
objects within easy range. The great panorama of 
mountain and plain, of mesa and valley, of arroya and 
canyon, shaded here and there by pine and cedar, 
dwarfs every living thing. The stillness is the still- 
ness of solitude, the beauty, the beauty of Nature 
undefiled. 

And this is Mid-day in Navajo land. 

As the afternoon grows old, the glare fades ; and 
the sun, touching the rugged horizon, casts long shad- 
ows across the plains ; and then like a blazing meteor, 
drops out of sight behind the snow capped mountains. 



THE NAVAJOS 27 

Now turn your eyes to the west and look upon 
the glorious beautj'^ of a sunset in a strange land. 
The peaks stand out like sentinels guarding the re- 
treat of day, and a blaze of light whitens the sun- 
ward side of those to the right and to the left. Frag- 
ments of gathering clouds, floating above in a sea of 
azure in which are blended tints of gray and green 
and yellow, are rich with the colors of red and gold 
and scarlet and purple which shift and change before 
our gaze as the misty masses drift with the evening 
breeze. Through this w^ealth of brilliant colors and 
mingled hues and tints, the sun projects its rays in 
fan-like form far into space, the shafts and beams of 
light illuminating the whole, and completing a rare 
picture of magnificence that inspires feelings of rever- 
ence and humility in those who look upon it. You close 
your eyes and wonder if an>i:hing else of this world 
can be so beautiful. The fiery glory behind the moun- 
tains dies down, but twilight lingers long as it slowly 
yields its beauty to the gathering shades of night. 

And this is Evening in Navajo land. 

One after another the stars appear; slowly and 
shyly at first, one here and one there; then springing 
into myriads all at once. The rising moon is hidden 
by the mountains, and her soft white light reflected 
on the clouds that float around and above the peaks, 
transforms them into masses of white and gold. As 
we stand in the deep shadow, the mountains are out- 
lined in frosted silver by the light of the moon that 
we can not see, and ^vith this and the hues of the 
illuminated clouds before us, the grandly beautiful 
scene is like the one we associate with the work of 
enchantment — a most wonderful combination of 
moonlight effects in the mountain region of Navajo 
land. As she rises the moon's rim comes into view 
where two mountains look at each other across a can- 
yon ; and peering through this notch in the range, she 



28 THE NAVAJOS 

seems to be asking ' ' Is it night ? May I come ? ' ' But 
without awaiting our bidding she presents herself in 
all her splendor ; and the mountains and the cliffs and 
the villages — all the wide landscape around us, are 
flooded with her light and do homage to her majesty, 
the Queen of Night — the Indian's Mother of all 
Mankind. 

The soughing of the pines as they are stirred by 
the rising breeze, is like the murmur of a distant sea, 
and warns us that the Storm King has had his battle 
array of thunder clouds hidden behind the mountains. 
Now, as he leads them over the range, the wind rustles 
down the gorges, whirls around the foot-hills, and 
sweeps across the mesas and through the canyons, 
raising great billows of dust. "The air is tremulous 
with the energy of the approaching storm." Sud- 
denly all is quiet ; but soon the great rain-drops begin 
to fall — big warm tears of the clouds. Thicker and 
faster they come until the land is drenched, and new- 
made rivers roar in the canyons and flood the arroyas 
with their turbid waters. The clouds have swept over 
us, and in the silvery light that fills the night, we 
watch the retreating storm and hear the distant, sullen 
thunder that rumbles like the cannonading of a re- 
tiring army that has spent its strength. Far away 
dull flashes of lightning still tell of the storm that is 
gone ; but the moon and the stars seem brighter than 
before, though low in the east is a touch of the faint 
first glow that heralds the coming of another day. 

And this was a Summer Day in Navajo land. 

Reared amid such scenes as these, where all Na- 
ture cries aloud in a thousand different voices, and 
speaks to him in prophetic tongues tuned to the key- 
note of Divinity, what wonder that the Navajo, 



THE NAVAJOS 29 

With untutored mind 

Sees God in the clouds, 

Or hears him in the winds? 
And who among ns, even in the light of revelation, 
is prepared to say the Navajo's God is not also our 
God, and that he worships Him as much in spirit 
and in truth as do his more enlightened white broth- 
ers? In the mere matter of form of worship, may 
we not ask, which is the savage? 

Located about fifty miles north of Fort Defiance, 
Arizona, is the wonderful canyon de Chelly (pro- 
nounced de Shay) . Nearly two 
Cliff Dwellings and hundred ruins have been lo- 
Ancient Ruins eated in this canyon, among 

them some very large villages. 
Some are located high up in the recesses of the can- 
yon's walls, while others occupy more level and ac- 
cessible positions at the bottom. This canyon is known 
as one of the ancient homes of the Cliff Dwellers, 
and ethnologists have visited it frequently and have 
made numerous excavations in the hope that dis- 
coveries might be made that would throw some light 
on the remarkable little people who built their homes 
in the almost inaccessible recesses of deep canyons 
and precipitous walls. 

The general opinion among ethnologists of to-day, 
however, is not as has generally been supposed, that 
the Aztecs built these villages, but that they were 
built by the ancestors of the present Pueblo Indians. 
In fact there is much to lead one to conclude that 



30 THE NAVAJOS 

their assumption is justified by the evidence. In this 
region the air is so dry and the atmosphere so pure, 
that articles buried in the ground will continue in 
a state of preservation for a remarkably long time. 
In some of these ancient ruins have been found rooms 
arranged very much like a Pueblo house of the present 
day. Many objects of every day use in present day 
pueblos, such as the mealing stone, earthen vessels, 
ornaments, garments, etc., have been found in these 
old ruins. Tons of pottery, similar to that made at 
the present time by the Pueblo Indians, have been un- 
earthed; also in the graves or burial cysts have been 
found cotton cloth, sandals, and various ceremonial ar- 
ticles, similar to those now in common use among these 
Indians. With the hundreds of such specimens that 
have been found and carefully preserved, it is possible 
to reconstruct the rooms of many of the old cliff dwell- 
ings and ancient ruins so that almost any Pueblo In- 
dian would even in this day and time feel himself quite 
at home within the ancient walls of the house of his 
ancestors, who were doubtless its inmates perhaps 
thousands of years ago. 

In western New Mexico, sixty-five miles north 
of the Santa Fe railroad, in Chaco Canyon, is the 
famous Pueblo Bonito. This is an ancient ruin and 
was partly explored by the Hyde Exploring Expedi- 
tion under the direction of Dr. George H. Pepper, 
the work being carried on for the American Museum 
of Natural History. This pueblo contains some five 
hundred rooms with massive outer walls. These 
ruins are about five hundred feet long and three 



THE NAVAJOS 31 

hundred feet wide. Over fifty thousand genuine tur- 
quoise beads, pendants and ornaments of very great 
value were found in one of the rooms of this pueblo. 
This ruin, and such ruins as those which are to 
be found scattered over the Navajo country, have been 
accepted by some as evidences that the land now oc- 
cupied by the Navajos was once peopled by a race 
concerning whom the Navajos have, according to Dr. 
Pepper, both myths and traditions ; a people, perhaps, 
more skilled in the arts of peace and war than were 
any of the other Indian tribes of the Southwest before 
the advent of the white man. 

Such, then, is Navajo land. A desert "land of 
little rain; of canyon-rift and cactus-plain." 



CHAPTER III 
The People 

Little is definitely known of the early history 
of the Navajo. By language he is closely related to 
the Apaches and to the many other 
Early History tribes speaking the Athapascan 
tongue. He has a faint tradition 
of a home farther to the north, but whence or when 
he came to his present abode he has no definite knowl- 
edge or tradition. 

The word "Navajo" is of Spanish origin, and is 
said by some to have been applied by the Spanish 
invaders to that portion of country lying along, and 
contingent to, the Little Colorado and San Juan 
rivers. The Spaniards called the inhabitants of that 
region "Apaches de Navajoa," probably from their 
resemblance to the Apaches with whom they had 
previously come in contact. They never refer to 
themselves as Navajos except when in conversation 
with white people. They call themselves "Dene," or 
"Tinneh" — meaning "the people," and they believe 
themselves to be far superior in every way to any 
other tribe of Indians. 




Cliff Dwellers' Sandals 
More than 1000 Years Old 
(From Photo by Hollister) 



THE NAVAJOS 33 

There is abundant testimony in the numerous 
well preserved ruins, that years before the Navajo 

came to his present home, a pre- 

Evidence of a historic people, advanced in the 

Pre-historic Race ways of civilization, dwelt in 

this region. The remains of 
ancient irrigating canals and reservoirs furnish 
evidence that a people once tilled the soil when 
natural conditions were different from what we 
now find them in the Navajo country. Remains 
of buildings are yet to be seen there of such 
design and proportions as would indicate the pre- 
vious presence of a people skilled in architecture 
and engineering. Archaeologists differ as to the con- 
clusions to be drawn from the evidence contained in 
these vast ruins. Some are of the opinion that the 
ancestors of the present Pueblo Indians were the 
builders of structures such as the one recently 
uncovered at Pueblo Bonito, New Mexico. Others 
contend that a race of people far superior in 
mental and physical endowments must have once lived 
and labored where now the Navajo leads his peaceful 
flocks in quiet solitude over a ruined and desolate 
waste. While it is doubtful if we shall ever know 
the exact truth as to the history of the people who 
have so indelibly left their imprint on the desert 
wastes, still to many it will ever be a pleasant occupa- 
tion to speculate as to the probable condition of those 
people who, for aught we know, may have been proud- 
er than the grandees of Spain and more chivalrous 
in love and war than the plumed knights of early 



34 THE NAVAJOS 

England. And who knows but they may yet be the 
theme that in some future day will inspire a Homer 
or incite a Virgil to sing in deathless song the glories 
of another and more illustrious Ilium or the prowess 
and adventure of other and more renowned Trojans? 
It is generally supposed that in very early times 
the Navajos were wild, reckless, roaming Indians with- 
out any definite or limited territory they called their 
home. Unlike most other Indian tribes, there appears 
to be no fixed, or even prevailing, Navajo type. They 
vary in feature and stature, from the tall, lithe men 
with prominent features resembling the Sioux or 
Cheyennes, to the dwarfish, timid physiognomy of the 
effeminate Pueblos, with almost every variety between 
these extremes. The Navajo is thought to have been a 
general outlaw, roaming at will wherever his fancy or 
love for adventure might lead him, seeking at all times 
w'hat or whom he might devour. He continually 
waged war upon the more peaceful and sedentary 
Pueblos and gradually gathered to himself the lawless 
and outcasts of other tribes with whom he frequently 
came in contact. These in time he assimilated, almost 
completely changing his character, until to-day, after 
being subjugated, tamed and disciplined by United 
States soldiers, we find him peace-loving and indus- 
trious, pursuing the quiet industries of agriculture 
and stock-raising. For three hundred years or more, 
he has occupied his present country, living much the 
same to-day as he did three centuries ago. His char- 
acteristics and racial instincts are as marked in him 



THE NAVAJOS 35 

today as when Coronado led the Spanish Invasion into 
New Mexico in 1540. 



The Navajo Indians are wards of the general 
Government under the Department of the Interior. 
The Navajo reservation is divided into 
Government districts which are under the super- 
vision of Indian Superintendents, with 
headquarters at Fort Defiance, Tuba, Leupp and 
Ream's Canyon, Arizona, and Shiprock, New Mexico, 
who have general oversight over them, and who, with 
Indian police, preserve law and order on the reserva- 
tion under rules prescribed by the Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs. 

The Navajos have no head chief, but they have 
a number of "head-men" whom they recognize as 
leaders, generally because of their superior qualities, 
character and integrity. While these offices are often 
either elective or hereditary, still they are not always 
so. The office of "head-man" usually gravitates to 
the man who can hold it — a natural born leader of 
men. 

The tribe is composed of several gentes or clans, 
each clan having its leader, or head-man. The legends 
of the Navajos contain many accounts of other Indians 
being adopted into the tribe and intermarrying among 
them and forming new gentes. The following legend- 
ary account of how the Navajos were once joined by 
a large band of Indians and how they were adopted 



36 THE NAVAJOS 

into the tribe is taken from Dr. Washington Mat- 
thews 's Navajo Legends: 

They were joined on the San Juan by a numerous 
band who came originally from a place called Tha- 
paha-kal-kai (White Valley among the Waters), which 
is where the city of Santa Fe now stands. These 
people had long viewed in the western distance the 
mountains where the Navajos dwelt, wondering if 
anyone lived there, and at length decided to go 
thither. They journeyed westward twelve days till 
they reached the mountains, and they spent eight days 
travelling among them before they encountered the 
Navajos. Then they settled at Toindotsos (place) 
and lived there twelve years, subsisting on ducks and 
fish, but making no farms. All this time they were 
friendly to the Navajos and exchanged visits ; but, 
finding no special evidence of relationship with the 
latter, they dwelt apart. When at length they came 
to the San Juan to live, marriages had taken place 
between the two tribes, and the people from Among 
the Waters became a part of the Navajo nation, form- 
ing the gens Tha-pa-ha. They lived at a place called 
Hyietyin (Trails Leading Upward), close to the Nav- 
ajos. There was a smooth sandy plain, which they 
thought would be good for farming, and the Chief, 
whose name was Gontso, or Big Knee, had stakes set 
around the plain to show that his people claimed it. 
The people of the new gens were good hunters, skilled 
in making weapons and beautiful buck-skin shirts, and 
they taught their art to the other gentes. 

The Tha-pa-ha then spoke a language more like 
the modern Navajo than that which the other gentes 
spoke. The languages were not alike. The chief of 
the Tsin-ad-zi-ni and Gontso often visited one another 
at night, year after year, for the purpose of uniting 



THE NAVAJOS 37 

the two languages and picking out the words in each 
that were best. But the words of the Tha-pa-ha were 
usually the best and plainest; so the new language 
resembles the Tha-pa-ha more than it resembles the 
Old Navajo. 

While the Tha-pa-ha lived at Hyietyin they had 
always abundant crops, — better crops than their 
neighbors had, sometimes they could not harvest all 
they raised, and let food lie ungathered in the field. 
They built stone store-houses, something like pueblo 
houses, among the cliffs, and in these stored their 
corn. The store houses stand there yet. The Tha-pa- 
ha remained at Hyietyin thirteen years, during which 
time many important events occurred, and then they 
moved to Azdeltsigi. 

Gontso had twelve wives ; four of these were from 
the gens of Tsinadzini, four from the gens of Dsiltlani, 
and four from the gens of Thanezani. He used to 
give much grain from his abundant harvests to the 
gentes to which his wives belonged; but, in spite of 
his generosity, his wives were unfaithful to him. He 
complained to their relations and to their chiefs, these 
remonstrated with the wives, but failed to improve 
their ways. At last they lost patience with the women 
and said to Gontso ; "Do with them as you will. We 
will not interfere. ' ' So the next wife whom he detect- 
ed in crime, he mutilated in a shameful way, and she 
died in consequence. He cut off the ears of the next 
transgressor, and she, too, died. He amputated the 
breasts of the third wife who offended him, and she 
died also. He cut off the nose of the fourth ; she did 
not die. He determined then that cutting off the nose 
should, in future, be the greatest punishment imposed 
on the faithless wife, — something that would dis- 
figure but not kill, — and the rest of the people agreed 
with him. But this had no effect on the remaining 



38 THE NAVAJOS 

wives ; they continued to lapse from virtue till all were 
noseless. Then they got together and began to plot 
mischief against their husband, Big Knee. They 
spoke so openly of their evil intentions that he feared 
to let any of them stay in the lodge at night and he 
slept alone. 

About this time the people determined to have 
a great ceremony for the benefit of Big Knee ; so they 
made great preparations and held a rite of nine days 
duration. During its progress the mutilated women 
remained in a hut by themselves, and talked about the 
unkindness of their people and the vengeance due 
to their husband. They said one to another: "We 
should leave our people and go elsewhere." On the 
last night of the ceremony there was a series of public 
exhibitions in a corral, or circle of branches, such as 
the Navajos have now on the last night in the cere- 
mony of the mountain chant, and among the different 
alili, or entertainments of the night, was a dance by 
the mutilated women. When their time came they 
entered the circle, each bearing a knife in her hand, 
and danced around the central fire, peering among 
the spectators as if searching for their husband; 
but he was hidden in the wall of branches that 
formed the circle. As they danced they sang a 
song the burden of which was "Pesla asila" (It 
was the knife that did it to me). When they 
had finished their dance they left the corral and, 
in the darkness without, screamed maledictions at 
their people, saying; "May the waters drown ye! 
May the winters freeze ye! May the fires bum 
ye! May the lightnings strike ye!" and much 
more. Having cursed till they were tired, they 
departed for the far north, where they still dwell, 
and now, whenever they turn their faces to the south, 
we have cold winds and storms and lightning. 



THE NAVAJOS 39 

The Navajos perpetuate these legends as nearly 
as is possible by a people having no written language, 
in the pristine purity of their fore-fathers ; and while 
the federal authority extends over the reservation and 
punishes infractions of the law, the Navajos have a 
code of honor and morals handed down from genera- 
tion to generation since they first became a nation, 
and they have ever regarded it as their sacred duty 
to obey this code under penalty of ostracism, death, 
or banishment from the tribe. 



CHAPTER IV 

Their Manners and Customs 

The coming of the Spaniard wrought a great 
change in the life and occupation of the Navajos. 

It is related that long ago, soon 
A Pastoral People after the Spaniards migrated 

with their flocks to the country 
of the Navajos, a marauding party of these Indians 
were out on a foraging expedition in the vicinity of the 
Rio Grande River and by stealth secured a small flock 
of sheep and goats from a Spanish settlement and took 
them home with them. These animals so delighted the 
women and children of the tribe that no pains were 
spared to bestow upon them the tenderest care and 
greatest consideration. The Navajos soon proved to 
be exceptionally good shepherds and under their care 
the flocks increased rapidly and a great deal of atten- 
tion has ever since been given by them to the 
raising of sheep. The flocks are tended almost en- 
tirely by the women and children, Navajo women 
being, perhaps, the best shepherds in the world. They 
watch over their flocks as tenderly as a mother watches 
over her infant child. When the weather is cold and 
damp they frequently take the little lambs into their 
hogans and wrap them up in soft, woolly skins to 
protect them from the chilling blasts, and should a 
young lamb lose its mother the Navajo woman will 




< -S 

B 



THE NAVAJOS 41 

often nurse it from her o^vn breast as she would her 
infant. 

Being preeminently a pastoral people, there can 
scarcely be found a Navajo family on the reservation 
that does not possess a flock of sheep and goats, rang- 
ing in numbers from a few hundred to several thou- 
sand head. It is no uncommon sight to see two or 
three small children watching their herds far out on the 
desert waste or mountain side with no other company 
than their flock, their faithful dogs and the ever 
present Mexican burro, whose voices are the only 
sounds that have disturbed the solemn stillness which 
has hung over many remote places in this strange land 
since creation. 

And so we to-day find the Navajo Indians the 
greatest aboriginal pastoral people in the New World. 



The Navajo Indian can hardly be said to have 
a permanent home. He is a wanderer over a desert 
land, roaming at will from place to 
Their Home place with his flocks and herds in sum- 
mer, and in winter seeking shelter 
sometimes in the foothills, but often high up on the 
mountain sides, where he can secure fuel for the rude- 
ly constructed hogan he calls his home. That he en- 
joys his domestic fireside there can be no doubt, since 
he lives contented and happy, ever increasing and 
multiplying. 



42 THE NAVAJOS 

In his domestic life he practices a code of morals 
after which many of his more enlightened white broth- 
ers would do well to pattern. 
Their Domestic Life The Navajo father is kind 
to his wife and children 
and in return they practice uniform obedience to 
him. The Navajo child is seldom punished and never 
beaten, for the simple reason that he seldom requires 
it. There appears to be a bond of sympathy and 
love between parent and child which is very strong 
during the minority of the child but strange to say, 
the children do not always love and protect their 
parents when the latter become old and infirm. To 
them the very old and decrepit have few rights which 
they are bound to respect. 

The women are generally virtuous, the "perverse 
woman" being an object of universal scorn. The 
Navajos believe her to be the very incarnation of the 
chindee (evil spirit), and that at death her spirit 
enters a fish. Hence the Navajo's utter horror and 
hatred of the finny tribe. 

It is a maxim of the tribe that a Navajo has the 
right to have as many wives as he can pay for and 

support. He secures his wives by pur- 
Marriage chase and the Navajo maiden is never 

lacking in offers of marriage. However, 
she is not at liberty to choose her own husband, but 
is rather a standing invitation of her mother for as 
many informal proposals as she may be able to at- 
tract, with the understanding that the mother re- 



THE NAVAJOS 43 

serves the right to reject any and all bids if deemed 
for the best interests of her own exchequer. The 
daughters are the property of the mothers until mar- 
ried, then both the daughter and her husband belong 
to the mother. Custom requires that the man must nev- 
er, under penalty of some awful calamity befalling the 
whole family, look his mother-in-law in the face. 

Because the young women command high 
prices, often beyond the amount the young man 
is able to pay, as a rule the old men marry the young 
girls and the young men frequently marry old women. 
After they have made their fortune they may then 
marry young women. It requires several ponies and 
a good flock of sheep to buy a young and buxom 
Navajo maiden. At death all the property of the 
husband descends not to the wife and children, but to 
the brothers and distant relatives of the husband. 

The Navajos still preserve their old Indian mar- 
riage customs. Their marriage ceremony is one of the 

most beautiful of any of 
The Wedding Ceremony the tribes. It is thus des- 
cribed by Mr. A. M. Stev- 
ens: 

On the night set for the wedding both families 
and their friends meet at the hut of the bride 's family. 
Here there is much feasting and singing, and the 
bride's family makes return presents to the bride- 
groom 's people, but not, of course, to the same amount. 
The women of the bride's family prepare corn meal 
porridge, which is poured into the wedding basket. 
The bride's uncle then sprinkles a circular ring and 



44 THE NAVAJOS 

cross of the sacred blue pollen of the lark spur upon 
the porridge, near the outer edge and in the center. 
The bride has hitherto been lying beside her 
mother, concealed under a blanket, on the woman's 
side of the hogan (hut). After calling to her to come 
to him, her uncle seats her on the west side of the hut, 
and the bridegroom sits down before her, with his 
face toward her's and the basket of porridge set be- 
tween them. A gourd of water is then given to the 
bride, who pours some of it on the bridegroom 's hands 
while he washes them, and he then performs a like 
office for her. With the first two fingers of the right 
hand he then takes a pinch of porridge, just where the 
line of pollen touches the circle of the east side, he 
eats this one pinch, and the bride dips with her finger 
from the same place. He then takes in succession a 
pinch from the other places where the lines touch the 
circle and a final pinch from the center, the bride's 
fingers following his. The basket of porridge is then 
passed over to the younger guests, who speedily devour 
it with merry clamor, a custom analogous to dividing 
the bride's cake at a wedding. The elder relatives of 
the couple now give them much good and weighty 
advice, and the marriage is complete. 

The Navajo in his plural marriages often has 
among his wives the mother and her daughter by a 
previous husband. Should he marry an old woman 
who has a young daughter, it is not an uncommon 
practice for the Navajo to marry this daughter when 
she arrives at the age of nubility and in so doing he 
prevents the mother-in-law hoodoo and becomes his 
own father-in-law by adoption. 

Marriage among the Navajos is quite frequently 
a probational alliance, about one year elapsing before 



THE NAVAJOS 45 

they publicly acknowledge their matrimonial relation- 
ship. When the young man marries he loses his 
identity with his own family and lives with, and be- 
comes a member of, his wife 's family and the children, 
if any, belong to the mother and take the name of her 
gens. No Navajo can lawfully marry one of his own 
gens, and they seldom form matrimonial alliances or 
mix with the white race in any manner. As a result 
we find the Navajos preserving their old customs, 
habits and modes of life in much the same undefiled 
manner to-day as before the white man made his ap- 
pearance among them. 



The Navajo Indians were formerly slave owners. 
It was their custom to hold as hostages all captives 

taken in war from other tribes, and these 
Slavery were often held in slavery for the remainder 

of their lives. Wliile most of their slaves 
were taken from among the Ute and Piute tribes, still 
it is said that they also often captured Mexican women 
and held them in slavery. It is also true that many 
Mexicans captured Navajo women and sold them into 
bondage. More than fifteen hundred Navajo slaves 
were held by the whites and Mexicans of New Mexico 
and Arizona when the United States acquired that 
territory from Mexico. It is more than probable that 
the Navajos got their idea of abject slavery from 
their experiences with the Mexicans. 



46 THE NAVAJOS 

The Shaman or medicine-man is the high priest 
of the Navajos. He professes to cure all the ills of 
mind and body. In fact to the 
The Medicine-man Navajo disease is nothing more 
than the workings of evil 
spirits. He believes if this evil spirit can be driven 
out of his body he will speedily recover. The Shaman 
may often be sincere in his belief that he possesses the 
power to drive out the evil spirit and thus restore 
health, but no doubt he more often knows that he 
possesses no such power but it is to his interest to 
make the people believe that he possesses it. 

In the first place the medicine-man must have 
visible, optical assurance of his pay or he will refuse 
to "sing" until it is forthcoming. He is most exact- 
ing in his demands for compensation for unless he 
receive his price in advance his ability to effect a cure 
is greatly endangered. He is very careful to explain 
to the patient that if he doesn 't exact the fee the gods 
will get mad at him and will refuse to answer his 
prayers. This is usually a convincing argument and 
the fee is forthcoming. 

The Navajo leads a strenuous open air life. He 
possesses great powers of endurance, is active, quick, 

alert and ever ready 
The Discipline of their Life to strike a bargain 

whereby he may en- 
rich his coffers. He has never been pauperized by the 
government and has kept alive his racial instincts and 
his tribal initiative. Necessity early taught him that 



THE NAVAJOS 47 

much hard labor is required to extract a living from 
a barren desert and he has not forgotten the lesson. 
He lives close to nature, wears no hat, does not restrict 
the free use of his body by the use of suspenders and 
seldom puts anything into his mouth to steal away his 
brains. He has his faults, but with all that he keeps 
his passions well under control. "With head high 
and lungs expanded he goes forth to do what- 
ever his hands find to do and he does not give up. 
With him work is a matter of necessity, not always 
of choice, but in his own country, in his own way, and 
after the manner of his forefathers he is at home, 
living one day at a time, never borrowing trouble 
and enjoying the freedom of his own mountain abode. 



The Navajos have a great variety of games and 
sports which they formerly practiced greatly to their 
amusement and physical well- 
Games and Sports being. A favorite sport among 
them now in the way of match- 
ing physical dexterity and endurance is foot races. 
There are probably no better runners among any 
other Indians in the United States especially for long 
distances. They will often run for several miles at 
a stretch and a Navajo will take a message across 
the desert on foot and run a distance of twenty or 
thirty miles, scarcely stopping. He is fleet of foot 
but above all is the remarkable power of endurance 
he displays in making long journeys across the desert 
and mountains. 



48 THE NAVAJOS 

The game of Cat's Cradle was once a game much 
played by the Navajos, and the myth of the game is 
thus given by Rev. Berard Haile : 

Cat's Cradle owes its origin to the spider people. 
They, the spiders, who in the Navajo belief were hu- 
man beings, taught them the game for their own 
amusement. The holy spider taught the Navajo to 
play and how to make the various figures of stars, 
snakes, bears, coyottes, etc., but on one condition — 
they were to play only in winter, because at that 
season spiders, snakes, etc., sleep and do not see them. 
To play the Cat 's Cradle at any other time of the year 
would be folly, for certain death by lightning, falling 
from a horse, or some other mishap were sure to reach 
the offender. Otherwise no religious meaning is said 
to attach to the game. Some claim it is to teach the 
children the location of the stars. 

Some of the other games and sports indulged in 
by the Navajos are similar to those practiced by many 
other tribes of American Indians, such as archery, 
hidden ball, dice games, shinny, ball race, etc. 

The Navajos do not like to bury their dead them- 
selves though they are always willing the white people 
should do so for them. Their supersti- 
The Burial tion prevents them from even so much as 
touching a dead person if possible to 
prevent doing so. Before life has entirely left the body 
it is the custom to wrap it in a new blanket and carry 
it to some convenient secluded spot where it is de- 
posited on top of the ground or beneath some project- 
ing cliff or rock, together with all the personal effects 
of the deceased. If an infant, the cradle, trinkets, etc., 







~ > . 


w 


4 


'.4'tlky * -V 


Im 


t 1 \^ j^ 


■ t 





A Navajo Woman in Native Dress 



THE NAVAJOS 49 

are carefully deposited beside the body. When there 
are no longer signs of life stones are piled 
around and over it, in order, they say, to keep the 
wolves and coyotes from carrying it away. If the 
deceased be a grown person the favorite saddle 
horse is led to the body where it is killed in a most 
brutal manner by knocking it in the head with axe or 
club. Here it lies by the form of its late owner, 
ready for the journey to the great spirit world. 

If by chance a Navajo should die suddenly before 
he can be removed from the hogan, they sometimes 
ply the firebrand and bum up the hut with all its 
contents, thus cremating the dead. Believing that the 
evil spirit enters the form at death and that if they 
should come in contact with a dead body or were to 
enter a hogan in which one of their number had died, 
the evil spirit would enter into them and kill 
them instantly, they are afraid to touch it or even to 
enter the hogan in which the person died. 

Upon the death of the head of a Navajo family 
all of his personal property descends to his brothers, 
sisters, uncles and aunts to the exclusion of his wife 
and children, a custom which is often very harmful 
in its effects, since if the wife should happen not to 
be possessed of some property in her own right she 
and the children are made to suffer penury and want. 



CHAPTER V 

Wars and Treaties 

Perhaps no other tribe of North American In- 
dians were ever so successful, through so many years, 

in warfare with the white man as were 
As Warriors the Navajos. While history fails to 

record a single great battle with the 
Navajos such as our armies have fought with the 
Sioux, Comanches, Apaches and others, still they car- 
ried on a continual desultory warfare with whites, 
Mexicans and neighboring tribes of Indians for more 
than one hundred and eighty years, with few intervals 
of peace. From 1849 to 1867 the United States 
expended annually over three million dollars in 
fighting and feeding the Navajos. In fact for many 
years the Navajos believed themselves the most form- 
idable warriors on the face of the earth. They did 
not possess the least doubt as to their ability success- 
fully to engage the combined armies of the United 
States and Mexico with the Utes and Piutes thrown 
in for good measure. And why not? Did not Gen- 
eral Canby, General Garland, General Sumner and 
many other brave soldiers of our army march into their 
country bent on exterminating the whole tribe, and 
then straightway march out again happy in the 
thought that they had been permitted to escape with 
their lives? Why then should the Navajo have any 



THE NAVAJOS 51 

fears? In numbers he believed himself far superior 
to the rest of the world. Taking a handful of sand 
he would let it slowly dribble through his fingers 
upon the ground, and when the last grain had passed 
through he would point to the little heap below and 
say "White soldiers all the same as the grains in this 
little heap of sand." Then turning to the broad ex- 
panse of mountain and plain extending for miles 
and miles all around him, he would make a low circu- 
lar sweep and with outstretched arm pointing to the 
grass covered mountains, plains and table lands, would 
say, "Navajos all the same as the blades of grass." 

But the Navajos forgot to reckon with Kit Carson. 
"Father Kit," as the Pueblo Indians called him, was 

not only a trapper, hunter, guide, sol- 
Kit Carson dier, and Indian agent, but he possessed 

the capacity, in a marvelous degree, of 
making quick decisions at just the right time. The 
distinguishing traits of his character were integrity, 
bravery, and skilful leadership. The Navajos, when 
they once knew Kit, admired him. He always told 
them the truth, "talked one way," and so completely 
were they surprised and overwhelmed by his shrewd 
tactics that one engagement was all that was needed 
to convince them that they had better make terms 
with Kit at once, and practically the whole tribe sur- 
rendered to him with very little bloodshed. They 
soon learned that he would punish them if they did 
wrong, and that he would also defend them if they 
were wronged by the whites. 



52 THE NAVAJOS 

The last Navajo war was begun in 1861 and ended 
two or three years later. A negro slave was killed 

by the Navajos at Fort De- 
The Last Navajo War fiance, Arizona, the slave be- 
longing to one of the army 
officers stationed at that post. The military authori- 
ties demanded that the murderer be brought in. The 
Indians refused to comply with the demand. War 
was declared. The Navajos entered upon a series of 
hostile incursions into the Mexican settlements, cap- 
turing stock and committing other acts of depredation. 
The governor of the territory was appealed to, and 
public sentiment generally aroused against the Nava- 
jos. A mighty effort was now to be made to anni- 
hilate these "butchering Navajos." 



In 1862 General Sibley, of the Confederate army, 
marched into New Mexico from Texas with a force of 

armed men and attracted the 

General Sibley attention of the United States 

Invades New Mexico troops then stationed in the 

Territory. Taking advantage 
of the situation the Navajos and Apaches began rob- 
bing the citizens of their stock and committing other 
acts of depredation among the white settlements. 
Henry Connelly, then governor of New Mexico, is- 
sued a proclamation directing that the commander-in- 
chief of the militia reorganize his forces and proceed 
to subdue and chastise the "perfidious" Navajos. 



I 



THE NAVAJOS 53 

"For many years past you have been suffering 
from the hostile inroads of a perfidious tribe of In- 
dians, who, notwithstanding the 
The Proclamation efforts of the government to 
ameliorate their condition and 
administer to their wants in every respect, do not 
cease daily to encroach upon the rights and depredate 
upon the lives and property of the peaceful citizens 
of New Mexico. 

"For a long series of years have we been subjected 
to the rapacity and desolation of this hostile tribe, 
which has reduced many a wealthy citizen to poverty, 
and the greater part of our citizens to want and men- 
dicacy ; which has murdered hundreds of our people, 
and carried our women and children into captivity. 
Almost every family in the Territory has to mourn 
the loss of some loved one who has been made a sac- 
rifice to these bloodthirsty Navajos. Our highways 
are insecure, and the entire country is now invaded 
and overrun by these rapacious Indians, murdering, 
robbing, and carrying oft' whatever may come in their 
way. Such a state of things cannot and must not 
longer be endured. 

"For more than a year past we have been men- 
aced by, and finally suffered the invasion of, Texas 
forces ; to repel which, and relieve the Territory from 
that more powerful and not less rapacious foe, re- 
quired all the energies and exhausted the resources of 
the Territory. During this period of time the Indians 
have, with impunity, preyed upon every interest of 
our people, and reduced them to a state of poverty 
which has not been felt for the last fifty years. 

"We are now free from all appearance of a con- 
federate force upon our frontier, but the attention of 
the military will be constantly drawn to any new 
dangers that may threaten from the same, or any other 



54 THE NAVAJOS 

quarter, and will, consequently, not be able to send 
into the Indian country any large force for the length 
of time necessary to subjugate the Indians and re- 
capture the immense amount of property of which our 
people have been so recently despoiled. This duty 
pertains to the militia of the Territory ; for this pur- 
pose you are to organize, never to be disbanded until 
we have secured indemnity for the past and security 
for the future. 

"It belongs to the people to relieve themselves of 
the evils they are suffering, and administer such chas- 
tisement to these marauders as they deserve. We have 
power to do so, and that power must be exercised. 

"Therefore, I, Henry Connelly, governor of the 
Territory of New Mexico, and commander-in-chief of 
the militia forces thereof, do hereby order all the field 
and staff officers of said forces immediately to proceed 
to the reorganization of the militia, in conformity with 
the law in force on the subject, and under such rules 
and regulations as may be prescribed, and to have said 
militia ready to march to the Navajo country by the 
15th of October next. The adjutant general is hereby 
ordered to carry this proclamation into effect. 

"Done at Santa Fe the 14th day of September, 
1862. Henry Connelly. 

' ' By the governor : 

"W. F. M. Arney, 

"Secretary of New Mexico." 

The above proclamation recites only the white 
man's grievances. It says nothing about the injuries 
received by the Indians at the hands of the whites. 
It does not refer to the fact that the IMexicans and 
Americans were at that moment holding more than 
fifteen hundred Navajo Indians as slaves. Even Gov- 



THE NAVAJOS 55 

ernor Connelly himself owned Navajo slaves at the 
time he wrote the above proclamation. Nor does 
it relate that the Indians had suffered from 
the frequent and murderous incursions of the 
Mexicans; that their flocks had been stolen, 
their wives and children hunted down and many 
of them captured and sold into slavery. No, 
the Indian can not communicate his grievances 
in so forceful a way as his white neighboi*s; he re- 
mains stolid and silent; he knows it is useless, his 
story would not be believed anyway. But he had at 
least one friend among the whites who dared to ex- 
press his opinion as to the causes of the trouble. 
This white man bravely fought them and punished 
them for their wrongs and just as bravely stood up 
for them in their rights. Let him tell his own story. 

Colonel Kit Carson sworn : 

I have heard read the statement of Colonel Bent, 
and his suggestions and opinions in relation to Indian 
affaire coincide perfectly with my 
Causes of Indian ow^n. I came to this country in 
Wars 1826, and since that time I have 

been pretty well acquainted with 
the Indian tribes, both in peace and at war. I 
think, as a general thing, the difficulties arise from 
aggressions on the part of the whites. From what 
I have heard, the whites are always cursing 
the Indians, and are not willing to do them 
justice. For instance, at times large trains come 
into this country, and some man without any responsi- 
bility is hired to guard the horses, mules and stock of 
the trains ; these cattle by his negligence frequently 
stray off; always, if anytjiing is lost, the cry is raised 



56 THE NAVAJOS 

that the Indians stole it. It is customary among the 
Indians, even among themselves, if they lose animals, 
as Indians go everywhere, if they bring them in they 
expect to get something for their trouble. Among 
themselves they always pay; but when brought in to 
this man, who lost them through his negligence, he 
refuses to pay, and abuses the Indians, striking or 
sometimes shooting them, because they do not wish 
to give up the stock Avithout pay; and thus a war is 
brought on. * * * * 

I think if proper men were appointed and proper 
steps taken, peace could be had with all the Indians 
on and below the Arkansas, without war. I believe 
if Colonel Bent and myself were authorized, we could 
make a solid, lasting peace with those Indians. I 
have much more confidence in the influence of Colonel 
Bent with the Indians than in my own. I think if 
prompt action were taken the Indians could be got 
together by the tenth of September. I know that even 
before the acquisition of New Mexico there had about 
always existed an hereditary warfare between the 
Navajos and Mexicans ; forays were made into each 
other's country, and stock, women and children stolen. 
Since the acquisition, the same state has existed; we 
would hardly get back from fighting and making peace 
with them before they would be at war again. I con- 
sider the reservation system as the only one to be 
adopted for them. 

If they were sent back to their own reservation 
tomorrow, it would not be a month before hostilities 
would commence again. There is a part of the Nava- 
jos, the wealthy, who wish to live in peace ; the poorer 
class are in the majority, and they have no chiefs 
who can control them. When I campaigned against 
them eight months I found them scattered over a 
country several hundred miles in extent. There is 




<0 "o 



C -is 



ns ■£ 

> 3 

CO o 

z y 



THE NAVAJOS 57 

no suitable place in their own country — and I have 
been all over it — where more than two thousand could 
here be placed. If located in different places, it would 
not be long before they and the Mexicans would be at 
war If they were scattered on different locations, i 
hardly think any number of troops could keep them on 
their reservations. The mountains they live m m the 
Navajo country cannot be penetrated by troops. There 
are canyons in their country thirty miles m length 
with walls a thousand feet high, and when at war it 
is impossible for troops to pass through these canyons, 
in which they hide and cultivate the ground. In the 
main Canyon de Chelly they had some two or three 
thousand peach trees, which were mostly destroyed by 
my troops. Colonel Sumner, in the fall of 1851 went 
into the Canyon de Chelly with several hundred men 
and two pieces of artillery; he got into the canyon 
some eight or ten miles, but had to retreat out ot it 
at night. In the walls of the canyon they have regu- 
lar houses built in the crevices, from which they fire 
and roll down huge stones on an enemy. They have 
regular fortifications, averaging from one to two hun- 
dred feet from the bottom, with portholes for faring. 
No small arms can injure them, and artillery cannot 
be used. In one of these crevices I found a two story 
house. I regard these canyons as impregnable. Gen- 
eral Canby entered this canyon, but retreated the 
next morning. When I captured the Navajos I first 
destroyed their crops, and harassed them until the 
snow fell very deep in the canyons, taking some pris- 
oners occasionally. I think it was about the 6th ot 
January, after the snow fell, that I started. Five 
thousand soldiers would probably keep them on reser- 
vations in their own country. The Navajos had a 
good many small herd when I went there. 1 took 
twelve hundred sheep from them at one time, and 



58 THE NAVAJOS 

smaller lots at different times. The volunteers were 
allowed one dollar per head for all sheep and goats 
taken, which were turned over to the commissary. I 
think General Carleton gave the order as an encour- 
agement to the troops. I think from fifteen hundred 
to two thousand could subsist themselves in the Valley 
de Chelly. At this point it took me and three hun- 
dred men most one day to destroy a field of com. I 
think probably fifteen hundred could subsist on the 
northeastern slope of the Tunacha mountain. I know 
of no other place near by where any considerable num- 
ber could subsist themselves. I was in the valley of 
the San Juan but can give no idea of the number that 
could subsist themselves in it. While I was in the 
country there was continual thieving carried on be- 
tween the Navajos and Mexicans. Some Mexicans 
now object to the settlement of the Navajos at the 
Bosque (Fort Sumner), because they cannot prey on 
them as formerly. I am of the opinion that, in con- 
sequence of the military campaign and the destruction 
of their crops, they were forced to come in. It ap- 
pears to me that the only objection to the Bosque is on 
account of the wood ; this consists of mesquite roots. 

During the next two years following G-overnor 
Connelly's proclamation, over six thousand Navajos 

were captured by Colonel Kit Carson, 
Their Capture almost without the shedding of blood. 

He invaded their stronghold, the 
Canyon de Chelly, a feat that no one before him had 
ever been able successfully to accomplish. He cap- 
tured the entire body of Navajos who had retired 
thither thinking themselves out of all danger. In 
most instances he was able to reason with them and 
convince them that their only safety from destruction 



THE NAVAJOS , 59 

lay in their peaceably surrendering. His skill in war- 
fare and his indomitable courage and daring won 
for him the admiration of all the tribes with whom 
he ever came in contact or to whom his valor and the 
story of his brave deeds had been carried. The Nava- 
jos, however, still delight in telling of the time when 
they surrounded Kit on top of a large black rock near 
Fort Defiance and held him there a prisoner for three 
days, when he finally effected his escape. The name 
of Kit Carson is to this da}^ held in reverence by all 
the old members of the Navajo tribe. They say he 
knew how to be just and considerate as well as how 
to fight the Indians. 



The Navajos were collected and given small tracts 
of land to cultivate near Fort Sumner, in eastern New 

Mexico. This section of coun- 
The Bosque Redondo try was called the Bosque 

Redondo. It proved to be a 
very unhealthful place for the Navajos, many of them 
dying from the effects of the alkali water. Wood 
was also scarce. It consisted largely of the roots 
of the mesquite bush and had to be dug out of the 
ground and dried before it would burn readily. This 
was very hard work and they longed to be permitted 
to return to their old home where there was plenty 
of good fuel and w^here they might tend their flocks, 
farm their fields and weave their blankets in peace 
and unmolested quietude. 

Serious objections were raised by the citizens of 



60 THE NAVAJOS 

New Mexico to the government permitting the Nava- 
jos to leave the Bosque. It became the topic of the 
hour throughout the Territory and bitter controversies 
arose as to the expediency of settling the Navajos 
again on their old reservation. A Senate committee 
was finally sent to investigate and report on the con- 
dition of these Indians. A council was held with the 
head-men of the tribe to ascertain their wishes and to 
know if they had any assurances to offer as to their 
future conduct if allowed to return. The Indians 
pleaded pitifully to be allowed to return to the graves 
of their ancestors and to all they held dear. They 
told the representatives of the government that all 
they wished was to be permitted to return unmolested ; 
that they did not ask the government to give them 
anything, they would manage to live some Avay. They 
said if they could be allowed to take one old buck 
goat back with them this was all they would ask ; this 
goat they would tie to a pinyon tree with leathern 
thongs on the top of a high mountain when they re- 
turned and they would there let him become famished 
from hunger and thirst, and when the goat should 
become irritable and angry they would call all the 
young men of the tribe and place them in a circle 
about the pinyon tree to which he would be tied, and 
while the old men incited the animal to madness the 
young men would look on, and as they watched the 
goat butt his head against the tree until the blood 
should ooze from its ears and nose and its head became 
one mat of gore, they would tell them "thus it is 
ever, to the Indians who oppose the government. 




Navajo Weavers 



THE NAVAJOS 61 

Fighting the government is all the same as that goat 
butting the tree. Our sons, take warning, the govern- 
ment is very strong and powerful; the Navajos will 
ever, hereafter, remain at peace with the government 
and shall henceforth listen to Washington, for he is 
our best friend." 

So the Navajos, in 1867, were allowed to return 

to their old reservation. Whether or no the goat 

incident was ever carried into 

Their Return effect, history does not tell us. 

to the Reservation At any rate the Navajos have 

ever since kept their word and, 

except for a few sheep and farming implements, have 

never received anything from the government. In 

fact they have refused to have rations issued to them 

for the reason, they say, they do not want the young 

men pauperized. 

This was the last of the Navajo wars.* ^ 

The only treaties ever made with the Navajos 
were treaties of peace. They have never received an 

annuity from the government in pajonent 
Treaties for land ceded because they never owned 

any land that the white man wanted. 
This reservation is only a barren waste for the most 
part, five acres of land being required to support 
a single sheep. So far, the white man has not coveted 
the land to any great extent and for this reason, and 

*See Appendix. 



62 THE NAVAJOS 

this reason alone, the Navajos are permitted to roam 
unmolested over their large reservation and to follow 
the avocations of peaceful shepherds and farmers in 
security and undisturbed quietude. 

In this the Navajos are extremely fortunate. They 
are better off in many ways than if they possessed well 
watered and fertile acres instead of their vast area of 
desert M^aste. For nowhere in the United States do 
we find tribes of Indians who have received large per 
capita payments for lands sold to the government who 
have not become greatly demoralized thereby. Out- 
laws, gamblers and whiskey peddlers have ever fol- 
lowed in the wake of treaty commissions and brought 
to the simple minded natives diseases, vices and the 
basest of demoralizing influences, which, in their weak- 
ness, they have readily accepted as the refinements of 
our civilization. 

So the Navajos, like the ancient Belgae who dwelt 
beyond the Marne and Seine, are the bravest, most 
industrious and independent of any of the tribes of 
North American Indians, for the reason that they do 
not receive the annual gift of gold from the govern- 
ment to attract to their reservation the lawless and 
depraved characters who would import those vices 
and customs which tend to enervate both mind and 
body. 



CHAPTER VI 
Their Religion and Morals 

The Navajo is intensely and even intemperately 
religious. He is a great pantheist and ascribes the 
attributes of Divinity to all the mighty 
A Pantheist manifestations of nature. He believes 
in a Great Spirit — the All of All — 
but contemplates Him only as some mysterious, 
mighty power whose anger must be appeased by 
prayer and supplication. The following is one of his 
prayers, according to Dr. Matthews: 

Reared within the Mountains! 

Lord of the Mountains ! 

Young Man ! 

Chieftain ! 

I have made your sacrifices, 

I have prepared a smoke for you. 

My feet restore thou me. 

My legs restore thou me. 

My body restore thou me. 

My mind restore thou me. 

My voice restore thou me. 

Restore all for me in beauty. 

Make beautiful all that is before me. 

Make beautiful all that is behind me. 

Make beautiful my words. 

It is done in beauty. 

It is done in beauty. 

It is done in beauty. 

It is done in beauty. 
This is a prayer addressed to the prophet Dsilyi 
Neyani in the great ceremony of the Mountain Chant, 



64 THE NAVAJOS 

an elaborate religious rite of nine days duration which 
the Navajos celebrate ostensibly for the healing of the 
sick. The supplicant after offering the sacrificial 
sticks smoked the sacrificial cigarette and this was the 
smoke he had prepared for the prophet.* 

The Navajo's heaven is below, not in the skies 
above. It is said that he believes that all departed 
spirits go to a marsh or swamp, where they remain for 
four days. If they have always obeyed the gods they 
will be shown a ladder leading them to a world below. 
Some of their people never reach this place, but are 
lost forever. They worship two great spirits, male 
and female, or father and mother. These dwell at 
the rising and setting of the sun. After descending 
the ladder they enter the new world. Here they be- 
hold their father and mother combing their hair. This 
they look upon in silence for several days, when they 
climb the ladder back up into the swamp to bathe and 
become purified. Then they return to the world below 
and to where they first saw the two spirits combing 
their hair. In this world they remain for eternity, 
contented and happy. 

Like all Indians, the Navajos are a very super- 
stitious people. They use charms for almost every- 
thing. Of these they have great num- 
Superstition bers. For rain they use a long round 
stone which they believe falls from the 
clouds when it thunders. They use bear's gall which 
they dry in the sun and carry about their person in 

*For full description of the ceremony of the Mountain Chant seeJ/'A 
Annual Report Bureau of American Ethnology. 



\ 




00 c 

^1 



< U. 



THE NAVAJOS 65 

small buck-skin bags to keep away the witches. For 
the cure of common diseases they use feathers, stones, 
crane's bills, antelope toes, roots, leaves, etc. 

The Navajo's religion is to be found in his great 
rites and ceremonies, commonly called dances. Many 
of these are elaborate and require several days 
in their performance. In performing his rites there 
is much praying and offering of sacrifices. These 
sacrifices are always of an innocent nature — no shed- 
ding of blood. None of his great religious ceremonies 
has ever been thoroughly understood by the white 
man and doubtless never will be, but we do know that 
the Navajo is a very religious being though his faith 
could hardly be classed as orthodox. 

The Navajo reservation has an area almost equal 
to one-third the state of Pennsylvania, with an es- 
timated population of 20,000 to 28,000 In- 
Morals dians, and if they were so inclined they 
could commit all manner of crimes among 
themselves without fear of punishment. But they 
do not do so. They gamble a great deal but 
they seldom have any disputes among them- 
selves over their games. The women are gener- 
ally virtuous and are perhaps the most independent 
wives to be found among any of the Indian tribes on 
the continent. Owning the children and the sheep 
in their own right, they are in a position to demand a 
hearing in deciding all the important matters pertain- 
ing to the domestic welfare of the family. 

Nor does the Navajo as a rule indulge in the use of 



66 THE NAVAJOS 

intoxicating beverages. His only stimulating beverage 
is coffee — Arbuckle's roasted coffee — "the drink that 
cheers but does not inebriate." He will use no other 
brand. There appears to be something about this 
particular brand of coffee that is very pleasing to the 
Navajo palate and he stubbornly refuses to accept a 
substitute. Wherever Indians can be found who have 
not given themselves up to the white man 's fire water, 
they are almost always harmless and peaceable people. 
Few tribes can now be found in the United States in 
which great numbers of the men, and even many of 
the women, do not drink intoxicating liquors to excess. 
There is no such thing as moderation when it comes 
to drinking whiskey with an Indian. He drinks it to 
get drunk and he gets drunk. The Navajos are per- 
haps as free from the curse as any tribe now to be 
found in our country, and as a result we find them 
generally free from evil vices and immoral practices. 
There is not a community of people of equal number 
in the world more law abiding, peaceable and indus- 
trious as a class than the Navajo Indians. 



CHAPTER VII 

Navajo Mythology 

Navajo mythology is replete with legends handed 
down from father to son telling the origin of every 
good and evil thing known to 
Myth and Tradition his simple life. While he does 
not contemplate a First Great 
Cause or its attendant effect, yet his legends contain 
the story of the creation of his present world, — the 
sun, moon, stars, sky, rivers, mountains, cliffs and 
canyons. He has a legend of a flood which destroyed 
all the wicked people. There is also the Wind god. 
Rain god, War god, etc., to whom he attributes 
omnipotent powers. 

While the Navajo has produced no literature and 
has no great epics or lyrics, still he has created elab- 
orate dramas. All of his dramas are founded on 
myths. Many of these myths are very long so that 
perhaps few Navajos know thoroughly more than 
two or three of the great myths. Like the myths 
of most all other people, they may be either explana- 
tory, such as attempt to explain the mysteries of 
existence and universal life; aesthetic, those de- 
signed to elicit emotion and give pleasure ; or the 
romantic myth, which displays the character of some 
favorite hero. In Navajo mythology may be found 
all of these classes of myths. We will not here con- 



68 THE NAVAJOS 

sider the stage of the Navajo myth, whether in the 
heeastotheism, zootheism, physitheism or psychotheism 
stage. 

A few of his myths, taken from acknowledged 
authorities, follow: 

CREATION OP THE FIRST MAN AND WOMAN 

(According to Dr. Matthews) 
The gods laid a buckskin on the ground with the 
head to the west; on this they placed two ears of 

corn, one yellow, one white. 
Some Navajo Myths with their tips to the east; 

and over the corn they spread 
another buckskin with its head to the east; under 
the white ear they put the feather of a white 
eagle, under the yellow ear the feather of a yel- 
low eagle. Then the white wind blew from the 
east and the yellow wind blew from the west, be- 
tween the skins. While the wind was blowing, eight 
of the Mirage People came and walked around the ob- 
jects on the ground four times, and as they walked the 
eagle feathers, whose tips protruded from between the 
buckskins, were seen to move. When the Mirage 
People had finished their walk the upper buckskin 
was lifted, — the ears of corn had disappeared ; a man 
and a woman lay there in their stead. The white ear 
of corn had been changed into a man, the yellow ear 
into a woman. 

The pair thus created were First Man and First 
Woman. 

MYTH OF THE OLD MAN AND WOMAN OF THE FIRST WORLD 

(According to Stevenson) 
In the lower world four gods were created by 
Etseastin and Etseasun. These gods were so annoyed by 
the ants that they said, "Let us go to the four points 



THE NAVAJOS 69 

of the world." A spring was found at each of the 
cardinal points, and each god took possession of a 
spring, which he jealously guarded. 

Etseastin and Etseasun were jealous because they 
had no water and they needed some to produce nour- 
ishment. The old man finally obtained a little water 
from each of the gods and planted it, and from it he 
raised a spring such as the gods had. From this 
spring came corn and other vegetation. Etseastin and 
Etseasun sat on opposite sides of the spring facing 
each other, and sang and prayed and talked to some- 
body about themselves, and thus they originated wor- 
ship. One day the old man saw some kind of fruit in 
the middle of the spring. He tried to reach it but 
he could not, and asked the spider woman (a member 
of his family) to get it for him. She spun a web 
across the water and by its use procured the fruit, 
which proved to be a large white shell, quite as large 
as a Tusayan basket. The following day Etseastin 
discovered another kind of fruit in the spring which 
the spider woman also brought him; this fruit was 
the turquoise. The third day still another kind of 
fruit was discovered by him and obtained by the 
spider woman ; this was the abalone shell. The fourth 
day produced the black stone bead, which was also 
procured. 

After ascending into the upper world Etseastin 
visited the four comers to see what he could find. 
( They had brought a bit of everything from the lower 
world with them.) From the east he brought eagle 
feathers; from the south feathers from the blue-jay; 
in the west he found hawk feathers, and in the north 
speckled nightbird (whippoorwill) feathers. Etseastin 
and Etseasun carried these to a spring, placing them 
toward the cardinal points. The eagle plumes were 
laid to the east and near by them white corn and 
white shell ; the blue feathers were laid to the south 



70 THE NAVAJOS 

with blue corn and turquoise ; the hawk feathers were 
laid to the west with yellow corn and abalone shell; 
and to the north were laid the whippoorwill feathers 
with black beads and corn of all the several colors. 
The old man and woman sang and prayed as they 
had done at the spring in the lower world. They 
prayed to the east and the white wolf was created; l 
to the south, and the otter appeared; to the west, and 
the mountain lion came ; and to the north, the beaver. 
Etseastin made these animals rulers over the several 
points from which they came. 

When the white of daylight met the yellow of sun- 
set in mid-heavens they embraced, and white gave 
birth to the coyote; yellow to the yellow fox. Blue 
of the south and black of the north similarly met, 
giving birth, blue to blue fox and north to badger. 

Blue and yellow foxes were given to the Pueblos ; 
coyote and badgers remain with the Navajo; but 
Great Wolf is ruler over them all. Great Wolf was 
the chief who counseled separation of the sexes. 

THE CREATION OP THE SUN 

(According to Stevenson) 

The first three worlds were neither good nor 
healthful. They moved all the time and made the 
people dizzy. Upon^ ascending into this world the 
Navajos found only' darkness and they said, "We 
must have light." 

In the Ure Mountains lived two women, Ahson- 
nutli, the turquoise hermaphrodite, and Yolaikaiason, 
the white shell woman. These two women were sent 
for by the Navajo, who told them they wished light. 
The Navajo had already partially separated light into 
its several colors. Next to the floor was white indi- 
cating dawn, upon the white blue was spread for morn- 
ing, and on the blue yellow for sunset, and next was 



THE NAVAJOS 71 

black representing night. They had prayed long and 
continuously over these, but their prayers had availed 
nothing. The two women on arriving told the people 
to have patience and their prayers would eventually 
be answered. 

Night had a familiar, who was always at his ear. 
This person said, "Send for the youth at the great 
falls." Night sent as his messenger a shooting star. 
The youth soon appeared and said, "Ahsonnutli, the 
hermaphrodite, has white beads in her right breast 
and turquoise in her left. We will tell her to lay 
them on darkness and see what she can do with her 
prayers." This she did. The youth from the great 
falls said to Ahsonnutli, "You have carried the white 
shell beads and turquoise a long time; you should 
know what to say." Then with a crystal dipped in 
pollen she marked eyes and mouth on the turquoise 
and on the white shell-beads, and forming a circle 
around these with the crystal she produced a slight 
light from the white-shell bead and a greater light 
from the turquoise, but the light was insufficient. 

Twelve men lived at each of the cardinal points. 
The forty-eight men were sent for. After their arrival 
Ahsonnutli sang a song, the men sitting opposite to 
her; yet even with their presence the song failed to 
secure the needed light. Two eagle plumes were 
placed upon each cheek of the turquoise and two on 
the cheeks of the white-shell beads and one at each 
of the cardinal points. The twelve men of the east 
placed twelve turquoises at the east of the faces. 
The twelve men of the south placed twelve white-shell 
beads at the south. The twelve men of the west placed 
twelve turquoises at the west. Those of the north 
placed twelve white shelled beads at that point. Then 
with the crystal dipped in corn pollen they made a 
circle embracing the whole. The wish still remained 
unrealized. Then Ahsonnutli held the crystal over 



72 THE NAVAJOS 

the turquoise face, whereupon it lighted into a blaze. 
The people retreated far back on account of the great 
heat, which continued increasing. The men from the 
four points found the heat so intense that they arose, 
but they could hardly stand, as the heavens were so 
close to them. They looked up and saw two rain- 
bows, one across the other from east to west, and from 
north to south. The heads and feet of the rainbows 
almost touched the men's heads. The men tried to 
raise the great light, but each time they failed. Final- 
ly a man and woman appeared, whence they knew not. 
The man's name was Atseatsine and the woman's name 
was Atseatsan. They were asked, ' ' How can this sun 
be got up." They replied, "We know; we heard the 
people down here trying to raise it, and this is why 
we came." "Chanteen" (sun's rays), exclaimed the 
man, "I have the chanteen; I have a crystal from 
which I can light the chanteen, and I have the rain- 
bow ; with these three I can raise the sun. ' ' The peo- 
ple said, "Go ahead and raise it." When he had ele- 
vated the sun a short distance it tipped a little and 
burned vegetation and scorched the people, for it was 
still too near. Then the people said to Atseatsine and 
Atseatsan, "Raise the sun higher," and they continued 
to elevate it, and yet it continued to bjirn everything. 
They were then called upon to "lift it higher still, as 
high as possible," but after a certain height was 
reached their power failed ; it would go no farther. 

The couple then made four poles, two of turquoise 
and two of white-shell beads, and each was put under 
the sun, and with these poles the twelve men at each 
of the cardinal points raised it. They could not get 
it high enough to prevent the people and grass from 
burning. The people then said, "Let us stretch the 
world"; so the twelve men at each point expanded the 
world. The sun continued to rise as the world ex- 
panded, and began to shine with less heat, but when 




A Navajo Head Man 



THE NAVAJOS 73 

it reached the meridian the heat became great and the 
people suffered much. They crawled everywhere to 
find shade. Then the voice of Darkness went four 
times around the world telling the men at the car- 
dinal points to go on expanding the world. "I want 
all this trouble stopped," said Darkness; "the people 
are suffering and all is burning; you must continue 
stretching." And the men blew and stretched, and 
after a time they saw the sun rise beautifully, and 
when the sun again reached the meridian it was only 
tropical. It was then just right, and as far as the 
eye could reach the earth was encircled first with the 
white dawn of day, then with the blue of early morn- 
ing, and all things were perfect. And Ahsonnutli 
commanded the twelve men to go to the east, south, 
west and north, to hold up the heavens, which office 
they are supposed to perform to this day. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Ceremonies 

The Navajos have a great many ceremonies 
which they practice with as much earnestness and 
devotion as was the custom of their fathers 
Ha-tal-i before them. Many of their ceremonies, 
which are usually performed for the heal- 
ing of the sick, are very long, elaborate and intricate 
rites, being often of nine days duration. The priest 
of the ceremony is called ha-tal-i, which signifies chant- 
er, or singer. It requires many years of patient work 
to learn one of the great rites perfectly, there being 
in many of them more than two hundred different 
songs to be memorized, and no priest attempts to learn 
more than one of the great rites, though he may know 
some of the rites of many of the minor ceremonies. 

In many of their ceremonies the Navajos mas- 
querade in the paraphernalia of their favorite gods, 
and while posing as a god they may gesticulate and ut- 
ter strange sounds yet they must never speak. The 
Navajo is for the time being, to all intents and pur- 
poses, the god he represents himself to be, and he hears 
prayers and accepts sacrifices, not as a Navajo, but as 
the god he is impersonating. He deceives no one, but 
acts simply as an impersonator of divinity, much the 
same as the priests of our Christian churches do when 



THE NAVAJOS 75 

they receive offerings, hear confessions and dispense 
blessings. 

The ceremony of the Mountain Chant is perhaps 
one of the most elaborate rites celebrated by the Nava- 

jos. It is founded on a myth, 
The Mountain Chant the burden of which is the 

story of the wanderings of 
a family of six Navajos, the father, mother, two sons 
and two daughters. These people wandered for many 
days in the vicinity of the Carrizo mountains, then 
journeyed far to .the north, crossing the San Juan 
river. The legend relates that the two sons provided 
meat for the family by hunting rabbits, wood rats 
and other small animals, and how the two daughters 
gathered edible seeds and roots on the way. It was 
a long time before the young men learned to follow 
the trail of the deer, and on one occasion, after re- 
turning to camp without the coveted deer, the old man 
became much provoked at the stupidity of his sons and 
said to them, "You kill nothing because you know 
nothing. If you had knowledge you would be success- 
ful. I pity you. ' ' He then directed them to huild a 
sweat-house, giving them instructions as to the details 
of its construction. After undergoing the purifying 
ordeal of the sweat bath, he began slowly and carefully 
to teach them all the arts of wood-craft; how to sur- 
prise the vigilant deer, and carefully, step by step, 
they were initiated into the mysteries of the chase. Af- 
ter many days of careful drilling, these sons made 
great preparations for going on a big hunt in the dis- 



76 THE NAVAJOS 

tant mountains. They returned after many days, each 
with a deer he had slain, together with much dried 
meat and many skins. 

It finally developed that the old man was a great 
prophet, and the myth goes on to relate how the two 
sons disobeyed their father's instructions and the pun- 
ishment that was visited upon them by the gods in 
consequence thereof. Afterwards the prophet was 
captured by the Utes, always at enmity with the 
Navajos, bound hand and foot and sentenced by the 
Ute council to be whipped to death. An angel visited 
the old man in the night and unloosed his thongs and 
the prophet took his flight, and after undergoing many 
hair-breadth escapes finally reached the home of the 
gods who taught him how to make offerings to the 
deities. They also taught him the mysteries of the 
dry sand-paintings, and how to perform the great 
healing rites of the Mountain Chant. 

When the prophet at last returned to his people, 
a great feast and dance was given in his honor. There 
was much rejoicing and making merry. He was washed 
from head to foot and dried with the sacred com meal. 
He was then asked to relate his experiences in the 
strange land of the gods. He now proceeded to teach 
his people the new rites he had learned from the gods 
and the preparation and use of the sacrificial sticks. 
A day was appointed when this new ceremony would 
be performed ; all the neighboring tribes were invited 
to attend and there was much rejoicing and exchang- 
ing of friendly good will. The ceremony was contin- 



THE NAVAJOS 77 

ued through nine days and nights, at the conclusion of 
which the prophet vanished in the air and was seen 
no more on earth. 

And this is the account the Navajos give of the 
origin of the ceremony of the Mountain Chant. 

This ceremony is, in reality, a great passion play. 
The costumes are numerous and elaborate. There is 
much dancing, so called, but it is really not dancing at 
all, simply the acting out of the drama of the great 
cosmic myth in prepetuating the religious symbols of 
the tribe. 

The following description of the "Fire Play" is 
taken from Dr. Washington Matthews : 

The eleventh dance was the fire dance, or fire 
play, which was the most picturesque and startling 

of all. Every man except the leader 
The Fire Play bore a long, thick bundle of shredded 

cedar bark in each hand and one had 
two extra bundles on his shoulders for the later use 
of the leader. The latter carried four small fagots 
of the same material in his hands. Four times they 
all danced around the fire, waving their bundles of 
bark toward it. They halted in the east; the leader 
advanced towards the central fire, lighted one of his 
fagots, and trumpeting loudly threw it to the east 
over the fence of the corral. He performed a similar 
act at the south, at the west, and at the north; but 
before the northern brand was thrown he lighted with 
it the bark bundles of his comrades. As each brand 
disappeared over the fence some of the spectators 
blew into their hands and made a motion as if tossing 
some substance into the departing flame. When the 



78 THE NAVAJOS 

fascicles were all lighted the whole band began a wild 
race around the fire. At first they kept close together 
and spat upon one another some substance of supposed 
medicinal virtue. Soon they scattered and ran ap- 
parently without concert, the rapid racing causing the 
brands to throw out long brilliant streamers of flame 
over the hands and arms of the dancers. Then they 
proceeded to apply the brands to their own nude 
bodies and to the bodies of their comrades in front 
of them, no man ever once turning around ; at times 
the dancer struck his victim vigorous blows with his 
flaming wand ; again he seized the flame as if it were 
a sponge, and, keeping close to the one pursued, 
rubbed the back of the latter for several moments, as 
if he were bathing him. In the meantime the sufferer 
would perhaps catch up with some one in front of 
him and in turn bathe him in flame. At times when 
a dancer found no one in front of him he proceeded 
to sponge his own back, and might keep this up while 
making two or three circuits around the fire or until 
he caught up with some one else. At each application 
of the blaze the loud trumpeting was heard, and it 
often seemed as if a great flock of cranes was winging 
its way over head southward tlirough the darkness. 
If a brand became extinguished it was lighted again 
in the central fire ; but when it was so far consumed as 
to be no longer held conveniently in the hand, the 
dancer dropped it and rushed, trumpeting, out of the 
corral. Thus, one by one, they all departed. When 
they were gone many of the spectators came forward, 
picked up some of the fallen fragments of cedar bark, 
lighted them, and bathed their hands in the flames as a 
charm against the evil effects of fire. 

The Hoshkawn Dance, the Plumed Arrow Dance 
and the Wand Dance are some of the other important 



THE NAVAJOS 79 

ceremonies in the great rite of the Mountain Chant. 
Few white people, except those living in the immediate 
vicinity of the Navajos, have ever witnessed many of 
the Navajo ceremonies for the reason that as these 
ceremonies are primarily for the healing of the sick, 
no regular time for holding them is ever appointed by 
the priests. When a Navajo gets sick it is necessary 
for his friends and relatives to hold a consultation 
and decide on what one of the many ceremonies will 
most likely effect a cure. This decided, a theurgist 
is selected who is familiar with the rites to be per- 
formed and he is immediately sought out and bar- 
gained with. The patient pays all the expenses of 
the ceremony which is often a very elaborate affair 
and very expensive. All visitors are expected to feast, 
make merry and have a good time, at the expense of 
the patient. 

One of the most interesting features, to the casual 
observer of the great religious ceremonies of the Nav- 
ajos, is the elaborate paintings with 
Sand Paintings various colored dry sands. Careful 
preparations are made in the lodge 
by covering the floor with a coating of sand about 
three inches in thickness. A black pigment is then 
prepared from charcoal for the black, yellow sand- 
stone for the yellow, red sandstone for the red and 
white sandstone for the white. A kind of blue is 
made by mixing the black with the yellow. 

Before beginning the painting the surface of the 
sand is carefully smoothed with a broad oaken batten. 



80 THE NAVAJOS • 

Young men usually do the painting under tlie careful 
and ever watchful eye of the shaman. There is a set 
rule which must be followed in each of the four great 
paintings. The Navajo shaman believes that to depart 
from the fixed order a; handed down from father 
to son through many generations, would de to invite 
the enmity of the gods. The true des'.gn must be 
followed, although within certain limits the artist 
may display his skill. 

In order to understand these sand paintings it 
is necessary to know thoroughly the myths upon which 
they are based. Perhaps no white nian has ever yet 
been able fully to understand and appreciate their 
symbolism. Since the Navajos do not preserve any 
patterns to go by, it is wonderful how they are enabled 
to preserve all the details of these elaborate paintings. 
Yet they claim not to have varied in any essential 
detail in all these hundreds of years. 



CHAPTER IX 
Their Arts and Crafts 

From a marauding robber and relentless warrior, 
to a peace-loving industrious producer, is the evo- 
lution of the Navajo Indian. A 
History of the little more than forty years ago 
Art of Weaving he was an outlaw, requiring a regi- 
ment of armed men to keep him in 
subjection. The Navajo had energy plus. He was 
always doing something, mostly something bad. His 
character was the product of his own misdirected 
energy. It required, as we have seen, the strategy 
of Kit Carson and hundreds of trained soldiers to 
teach him the lesson of respectful obedience to lawful 
authority, and to convince him that his rights ceased 
where the rights of others began. 

About the year 1675 the various Pueblo tribes 
formed a coalition for the overthrow of Spanish do- 
minion in New Mexico and Arizona, and the day of 
retribution came in 1680, for it was in that year that 
they drove the Spaniards from their land, killing and 
destroying everything that reminded them of Spanish 
oppression. When the Spaniards returned a few years 
later carrying their bloody inquisitions into these 
defenseless Pueblo villages, many of the inhabitants 
were unable successfully to resist the iniquities that 



82 THE NAVAJOS 

were perpetrated against them and so a great many 
of the Pueblos fled to the Navajos for protection. 

At this time the Navajos depended chiefly upon 
the spoils of conquest for their support. They toiled 
not, neither did they spin. Their neighbors, the 
Pueblos, did both. They raised corn and cotton in 
the valleys, and when the crops were gathered they 
carried them up the steep mesas and stored their food 
and fiber away in the hidden recesses of their pueblos 
for safe keeping, to be used as occasion required. 
Their corn furnished them food for winter and their 
cotton they wove into blankets, ceremonial belts and 
into cloth for clothing. The Navajos found these 
peaceful, industrious Pueblo Indians an easy prey, 
and often laid waste their fields and plundered their 
villages. 

With the Navajo it has been the survival of the 
fittest. The outlaws and daring marauders of other 
tribes were attracted to them by common interests. 
Only the strong, brave and mentally alert could keep 
pace with the bold, reckless Navajos, hence the weak, 
feeble and decrepit fell by the wayside. Being thus 
subjected to the weeding out process, as the years 
went by the tribe grew strong, both mentally and 
physically. 

We have already stated that the Navajo can give 
no intelligent account of his ancestry or of the country 
from whence he came. His past history is practically 
a blank. He, like all other races of mankind, is a 
simple sequence. He is what he is to-day because he 
did what he did in days gone by. But for the coming 



THE NAVAJOS 83 

of the Spaniard his history might be very different. 
He possessed neither horse, sheep, goats nor cattle, but 
either by barter or stealth he early came into posses- 
sion of them. The Spaniards brought sheep into his 
country and thenceforth the Navajos were to be the 
greatest aboriginal pastoral people in the New World. 

As long as the Navajo carried on aggressive war- 
fare he made little progress in the arts of peace. Not 
until the oppressed of the more peaceful and progres- 
sive sedentary tribes began to flee to him for protec- 
tion, did he take up any of the important handicrafts 
which now distinguish him so signally from other 
Indians. The Pueblos raised cotton and wove it into 
cloth, but the Navajo knew nothing about weaving 
before the introduction of sheep by the Spaniards. He 
did not grow cotton, nor is it anywhere evident that 
he knew the first principles of manufacturing raw 
material into finished products. He evidently learned 
the art of weaving from the Pueblos who fled to him 
for protection from the horrors of the Spanish In- 
quisition. 

While the Navajos give considerable attention to 
agriculture and the raising of horses and cattle, still 
the principal industry among them is the growing of 
sheep. It is a poor family, indeed, that does not pos- 
sess a flock of sheep and goats. Goats are to be found 
in almost every Navajo herd. They are prized by 
them chiefly for their flesh and pelts. Goats are also 
desirable additions to their flocks from their habit of 
leading out and scattering the sheep sufficiently to 
graze over a large area which is necessary for the best 



84 THE NAVAJOS 

development of flocks in the Navajo country where five 
acres of land is required to support a single sheep. 
The Navajos also claim that goats are useful in pro- 
tecting the sheep from attacks by wolves and coyotes. 
The goat will show fight while the sheep meekly sub- 
mits to his fate. 

While the Navajo has always possessed marked 
tribal characteristics that have attracted the attention 
of tourists and etlmologists for a great many years, 
it is his native wool blanket that has given him an 
universal reputation. Every honest person and every 
lover of true art, admires truth expressed in the crea- 
tion of the mind and in the product of the hand. 
Beauty and utility are the marked characteristics of 
the Navajo blanket. Our North American Indians 
have, as a rule, produced very little that the average 
white man considers useful to present-day civilization. 
Some tribes, like the Sioux and Ojibways, do beautiful 
bead work, the Pueblos make artistic pottery, and sev- 
eral tribes in Arizona and California make beautiful 
baskets. But the white man has little use for these 
things and if he purchases them at all, which he often 
does, it is simply to please his fancy and to satisfy 
his craving for something Indian. We have witnessed, 
during the past few years, the "Indian fad," taking 
the country almost by storm. There has been a great 
demand for all sorts of Indian handiwork. All sorts 
of Indian purses and moccasins, manufactured in large 
quantities in the East, have been placed on the market 
by enterprising dealers. The various Indian tribes 
throughout the west also make a great many things 



THE NAVAJOS 85 

simply to sell to tourists. The Indian finds in this 
work an occupation that is congenial to him as well 
as a source of income, and the tourist gets what he 
wants, "a genuine Indian curio" to take back home 
with him as material evidence that he has seen a ' ' sure- 
enough" Indian. 

But it is quite different with the Navajo blanket. 
This possesses intrinsic value. While many people 
believe these blankets are made in Eastern factories 
by the "Yankees" and shipped to Western traders to 
deceive "tenderfoot" tourists, this is a mistake. The 
Indian buys the factory made blanket for his own 
use. The Mackinaw robes are worn by all "blanket" 
Indians. They are usually of bright colors and elab- 
orate pattern, the designs being often taken from Nav- 
ajo blankets and other Indian handicraft. 

It may not be generally known, but it is a fact, 
nevertheless, that the Navajo does not wear his own 
make of blankets. They are too valuable, for one rea- 
son, since one Navajo blanket of good weave and pat- 
tern, is worth half a dozen ordinary Indian robes sold 
by the trader. Another reason is that the Navajo 
blanket is too heavy and cumbersome to wear as a 
robe. The Indian much prefers the factory- made 
blanket for his own use, and if we wore blankets as 
he does, I am sure we would prefer them also. We 
should soon grow very weary of carrying a ten or 
fifteen pound Navajo blanket around our shoulders; 
besides they are very stiff and do not easily adjust 
themselves to the form of the body, a quality very 
desirable in a robe of any sort. 



86 THE NAVAJOS 

The art of weaving is comparatively a new art 
among the Navajos. As previously stated they learned 
it from the Pueblos and since the introduction of sheep 
into their country by the Spaniards. It is certainly 
not more than three hundred years since they began to 
weave, if it is that long. The Pueblos were fine 
weavers of cloth and they still do very fine weaving, 
but it is in the weaving of blankets or rugs, that the 
Navajo excels. We naturally admire the happy fac- 
ulty of ''catching on" in any people. The fact that 
the Navajo, who had always been a warrior and little 
given to useful toil, should take up the craft of a 
people that he naturally despised and held in eon- 
tempt, and so excel him in the application of that art 
as to practically take it out of his hands, is worthy 
of the emulation of the highest civilized people in the 
world. 

A genuine Navajo blanket is hand made from 
start to finish. The Indian grows his own wool, cards 
it, spins it, dyes it, and weaves it, all by hand in the 
most primitive manner. He formerly pulled the wool 
from the sheep with his hands but with the advent 
of the trader came the common sheep-shears, and he at 
once began the use of them. Were you to visit a 
Navajo weaver's hogan or lodge, you would expect 
to see a large old fashioned loom and spinning wheel 
something like those our great grandmothers used in 
making what they called "home-spun cloth," but you 
would, in reality, see very different appliances employ- 
ed in carrying on this textile industry. By comparison 
the loom and spinning wheel of our Colonial ancestors. 



THE NAVAJOS 87 

were as intricate and complicated as the machinery of 
a modern woolen mill. The Navajo spinning wheel 
consists of a small wooden spindle made of hard wood, 
and about eighteen inches in length, on which is fas- 
tened a wooden disc three or four inches in diameter. 
This spindle is dextrously twirled with the fingers, 
while the soft wool, which has been carded with a pair 
of old fashioned hand cards into small rolls, is twisted 
into smooth, strong threads. Often this process is re- 
peated four or five times in order to secure the desired 
smoothness, tenacity and fineness in the yarn. Think 
of the labor required in the very first processes. After 
the spinning the yarn must be dyed. Formerly na- 
tive vegetable dyes were used exclusively. These 
vegetable dyes never faded but grew more mellow and 
beautiful with age. It is to be deplored that the 
ordinary dyes of commerce have largely taken the 
place of the vegetable dyes in the manufacture of 
the Navajo blanket. The best weavers still use 
some of the common colors in the vegetable dyes 
in connection with the analine dyes to make the latter 
"set." Perhaps the main reason for discarding the 
vegetable dyes by the Navajo weavers is the fact that 
they find it much cheaper and by far less work to use 
the commercial dyes. They also get a greater variety 
of colors. In their native dyes they never had very 
many difi'erent colors. They had a beautiful yellow 
which they made from a yellow flower that grows in 
their country. But they had no red such as they now 
get with the dyes of commerce, except as they pur- 
chased the bayeta cloth from the Spanish traders. 



88 THE NAVAJOS 

This was their first bright red. It cost them six dol- 
lars per pound and was used sparingly. These old 
bayeta blankets are now very scarce and command 
high prices. 

The inventive genius of the white man has never 
yet been able to reproduce the Navajo effect in a 
blanket. In the white man 's loom when a color starts 
across the beam it must be carried all the way across 
and appear on one side or the other in the finished 
product. Not so with the Navajo loom. This loom 
is, if possible, even more primitive than the old fash- 
ioned spinning spindle. Ordinarily two forked posts 
driven into the ground with a cross beam supported 
in the crotches, serves for the frame. The chain or 
warp is then fastened in this frame and sitting flat 
on the ground, the weaver picks up a ball of yarn and 
using her hand as a shuttle she starts across the beam, 
cutting out one color and substituting another any- 
where she desires. This gives her unlimited range for 
color and design. The Mexican Indians have a very 
rudely constructed loom, something like the old time 
rag carpet loom on which they weave a blanket that 
looks something like the Navajo product. But in 
reality it is very different. In the first place, these 
Mexican rugs are of uniform size, as they have to have 
a different loom for each size of rug made. They are 
also of a very loose, slazy weave as compared to the 
tight, firm weave of the better grade of Navajo blan- 
kets. Several blankets are woven on the same chain, 
which is cotton, and are cut apart something like 
towels, leaving a fringe at the ends which is tied or 



THE NAVAJOS 89 

braided to prevent raveling. They are often sold for 
genuine Navajo blankets, but they are in every way 
inferior to them. 

There are as many patterns and designs as there 
are blankets themselves, no two ever being exactly 
alike. One very striking peculiarity about every Nav- 
ajo blanket is its incompleteness. There is a super- 
stition prevailing among the Navajos, more inexorable 
than law, that perfection means the end. They be- 
lieve that if they should weave a perfectly symmetrical 
blanket, with all the designs carried out to perfect 
completeness, this would be the last blanket they 
would ever live to weave. Hence an extra stripe, a 
larger figure or some peculiar blending of colors or 
curiously wrought design will invariably appear some- 
where in every blanket, though to the untutored eye 
it is difficult to detect it in the tiner weaves. 

Perhaps the most striking pattern woven by the 
Navajos is what is familiarly known as the "Old Chief 
Design," or Hon-el-chod-di. This differs from all 
other designs in many ways. First, it is wider than 
long, the woof being about one and one half times as 
long as the warp. The colors in this pattern are 
white, black, navy blue and red in the order named. 
In some instances the navy blue is omitted and in 
others the black. The pattern is alternating black 
and white bars, four or six inches wide, extending 
across the blanket, with one long diamond in the 
center, and four half-diamonds mid-way of the top 
and bottom and on each side, and a quarter diamond 
woven on each of the four corners. A dark field of 



90 THE NAVAJOS 

black, red and blue generally connects the central 
diamond with each of the half -diamonds to the right 
and left. In olden times, when the Navajos wore 
their own make of blankets, only the chiefs of the 
tribe were permitted to wear a hon-el-chod-di blanket. 

It might be well to state here that all weaving 
among the Navajos is done by the women, but among 
the Pueblo Indians the men are the weavers. There 
is on the Navajo reservation a hermaphrodite who 
weaves blankets. He weaves only one blanket each 
year and this is always a very large, fine one. It is 
a marked characteristic of the hermaphrodites among 
the Navajos that they are always more dextrous at 
woman's work than are the women themselves. Ac- 
cording to Navajo mythology the First Man and the 
First Woman were created from two ears of corn and 
the first fruits of their marriage were twins and her- 
maphrodites. There is a prevailing superstition 
among the Navajos, therefore, that the hermaphrodite 
is possessed of supernatural powers, and the herma- 
phrodite here referred to is a noted shaman, or medi- 
cine man, of the tribe. 

The Navajo weaver does not have a pattern to go 
by, but makes up her design as she goes along. These 
designs reflect, largely, the state of her mind at the 
time and the power of her imagination. During late 
years, since the wishes of the whites have created a 
demand for striking designs, many sacred emblems 
of the great religious ceremonies are woven into the 
blankets. Oftentimes they are very intricate and if 
they could be read would unfold many a sacred rite or 



THE NAVAJOS 91 

legend and reveal the thoughts of the imaginative 
soul who so silently and patiently weaves her life and 
character into her blanket. 

The following tribute to the Navajo weaver is 
from the pen of Edwin L. Sabin : 

Out in the land of little rain ; 
Of cactus-rift and canyon plain, 
An Indian woman, short and swart, 
This blanket wove with patient art; 
And day to day, through all a year, 
Before her loom, by patterns queer, 
She stolidly a story told, 
A legend of her people, old. 

With thread on thread and line on line. 
She wrought each curious design. 
The symbol of the day and night. 
Of desert dark and of mountain height, 
Of journey long and storm beset. 
Of village passed and dangers met. 
Of wind and season, cold and heat, 
Of famine harsh and plenty sweet. 

Now in this pale-face home it lies, 
'Neath careless, unsuspecting eyes, 
Which never read the tale that runs 
A course of ancient, mystic suns, 
To us 'tis simply many-hued. 
Of figures barbarous and rude ; 
Appeals in vain its pictured lore ; 
An Indian blanket — nothing more. 



92 THE NAVAJOS 

While the Navajo women are the weavers of the 
tribe, her liege lord displays his skill and art as a 
craftsman in fashioning from silver 
The Pesh-li-kai, coins the many ornaments used for 
or Silversmith personal adornment of both sexes. 
"■ He is an improvident Navajo, in- 
deed, who does not possess one or more articles of 
the pesh-li-kai's manufacture. 

Silver rings, bracelets, ear-rings, necklaces, stick 
pins, belts; buttons, buckles and various other orna- 
ments for his person and paraphernalia all curiously 
hand chased and tooled, and often set with native 
stone settings of turquoise and garnets, or with im- 
ported opals, turquoise, sapphires, amethysts, etc., are 
the chief products of his handicraft. He also makes 
silver bridle heads for ornamenting his pony, which 
are often worth two or three times as much as the 
horse upon which they are to be worn. Souvenir 
silver spoons of various designs are made by him 
which he sells to the Indian traders. 

His tools are often of the rudest sort and con- 
sidering the advantages he has for studying designs 
from observation, much less of seeing skilled silver- 
smiths at work in their modern, well equipped shops, 
the skill and originality displayed in the manufacture 
of his jewelry is really very remarkable. But we 
must remember the Navajo has initiative. He will 
undertake to do almost anything he has ever seen a 
white man do. He probably learned the art of work- 
ing in metals from the early Spanish explorers, but 




Navajo Jewelry 
(Courtesy of J. B. Moore) 




Navajo Silverware 
(Courtesy of J. B. Moore) 



Navajo Silverware 
f Courtesy of J. B. Moore) 



THE NAVAJOS 93 

it is safe to assume that he has had very little instruc- 
tion along these lines, for he has not yet learned the 
use of the baser metals. He uses only silver coins in 
the manufacture of his jewelry and silver-ware. 
Nothing but the genuine satisfies the Navajo. 



CHAPTER X 

Civilization 

From the view point of the casual observer the 
Navajo Indian is simply an ignorant, superstitious 

but industrious barbarian. He will 

As viewed by have none of the white man's re- 

the White Man ligion, his own being good enough 

for him. He does not object to 
missionaries, but he wants them to come to him with a 
tool chest and a practical knowledge of agriculture by- 
irrigation, and of stock raising. He protests that he 
knows nothing about ' ' that man up in the skies ' ' and 
of that world where there will be no more work. On 
one occasion a conunittee of Navajos called upon their 
agent and entered a protest against their missionary. 
They said they were tired of hearing about a world 
up in the skies where there would be lots to eat and 
nothing to do; they said they could not understand 
about the white man's heaven, nor about that Jesus 
man whose home was away up in the skies somewhere, 
but that they could understand about the things in 
this life and in this world and that they wanted a 
new missionary — one who could teach them a better 
way of living their life here on earth, a better way 
of farming their lands, how to improve the breeds 
of their flocks and herds, how to repair their plows 
and harness, and how to mend a broken wagon. These, 
they said, were the qualifications of the missionary 



THE NAVAJOS 95 

that would be able to help the Navajos, but as to the 
Bible, they knew nothing about that and could not 
understand its teachings ; it was made for the white 
people and not for the Navajos. 

To the orthodox missionary, his is a hopeless case, 
or well nigh hopeless — a heathen and a pagan be- 
yond redemption. Not very many years ago and he 
would have suffered death by burning at the stake 
for such heresy and even though a savage he would 
have either been converted or killed. And indeed it 
is extremely doubtful if the Navajo ever attains to 
anything approaching our civilization until he does 
accept those fundamental truths of Christianity as 
taught on the shores of Galilee by the lowly Nazarene. 
He needs a little more charity, a little more brotherly 
love and a little less adherence to the old Scriptural 
injunction — an eye for an eye and a tooth for a 
tooth. He is a diamond in the rough. 

The Navajo is now sending his children to school, 
the Government maintaining several industrial train- 
ing schools on his reservation for their 
His Progress education. He is turning his mechan- 
ical aptitude to account by finding 
employment in machine shops and at the stone 
mason's trade in neighboring to^vns. Others se- 
cure work on the railroads as section hands and 
in the sugar beet fields as day laborers. The blanket 
weavers and the silversmiths are constantly employed 
and the product of their handicraft finds ready sale 



96 THE NAVAJOS 

at goodly prices, their blankets being in great demand 
throughout the United States and even in foreign 
countries. From their sheep, goats, cattle and sale 
of their blankets the Navajos have a yearly income 
of from six hundred to ten hundred thousand dollars. 
The Government is making an effort to develop water 
for them for irrigation purposes and for their stock, is 
improving their sheep by cross-breeding and is provid- 
ing work for them whereby they can add to their in- 
come while at the same time they develop and maintain 
their splendid independence and initiative of which 
they are justly so proud. 

It is safe to assume that the Navajo Indian will 
always remain an Indian. He shows no disposition to 
amalgamate with any other race. Dur- 
His Future ing the past few years the policy of the 
government has been to study the char- 
acteristics of the Indian and to adopt such measures 
as will most likely tend toward the development of 
all his natural instincts along lines calculated to make 
him a better Indian. 

In a recent annual report to the Secretary of the 
Department of the Interior, Mr, Francis E. Leupp, 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said: 

The Indian is a natural warrior, a natural logi- 
cian, a natural artist. We have room for all three in 
our highly organized social system. Let us not make 
the mistake, in the process of absorbing them, of wash- 
ing out of them whatever is distinctly Indian. Our 
aboriginal brother brings, as his contribution to the 



THE NAVAJOS 97 

common store of character, a great deal which is ad- 
mirable, and which only needs to be developed along 
the right line. Our proper work with him is improve- 
ment, NOT TRANSFORMATION. 

In view of this policy of the Government the light 
is dawning in the east for the Navajo, and he has a 
bright future. Being no longer guarded on the res- 
ervation, the great field of competitive labor is open 
before him. If, like Mahomet, the mountain does 
not come to him he goes to the mountain. If his 
crops fail him in seasons of drouth he goes forth with 
light heart and strong arm knowing that his labor is 
in demand as artisan and freighter or in the beet 
fields, or with the railroad construction crews, and 
that the honest laborer is ever worthy of his hire. 



Appendix 



The happiest man is he who learns from nature 
the lesson of worship. 

Of that ineffable essence which we call Spirit, 
he that thinks most, will say least. We can fore- 
see God in the coarse and, as it were, distant phe- 
nomena of matter; but when we try to define and 
describe himself, both language and thought desert 
us, euid we are as helpless as fools and savages. 
The essence refuses to be recorded in propositions, 
but when man has worshiped him intellectually, 
the noblest ministry of nature is to stand as the ap- 
parition of God. It is the great organ through 
which the universal spirit speaks to the individual, 
and strives to lead the individual to it. 

— Emerson, Essay on Nature. 



APPENDIX 

Consisting of official letters and affidavits of gov- 
ernment officials, hoth civil and military, relating to 
the Navajo Indians and their country, and to the 
causes which led to the Navajo war of 1861. 

Also containing statements, from reliable sources, 
regarding the practice of the Mexicans capturing and 
holdi7ig Navajo Indians as slaves and servants. 

AFFIDAVIT RELATING TO THE NAVAJO INDIANS AND THEIR 
COUNTRY 

Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 3, 1865. 
Brigadier General James H. Carleton sworn: 

I am brigadier general of volunteers and major 
in the 6tli regiment United States cavalry. I have 
been in the service twenty-five years. I first came 
to this Territory with General Sumner in 1851, and 
left in the fall of 1856. I returned again in the fall 
of 1862, and have been here ever since. I have been 
in command of this department since the 18th of 
September, 1862. My principal duties have been in 
connection with Indian affairs. 

The Navajo country is a country of elevated 
mesas, destitute of water, and has some few ranges 
of mountains. Between these mesas are some low 
lands, whereon some springs and streams are found. 
These springs or streams are at great distance from 
each other, as compared with the frequency of water 
found elsewhere. These waters are of limited extent 
and volume; and the best of them sink in the earth 



102 APPENDIX 

at a short distance from their source. There are two 
exceptions to this general remark. One is the San 
Juan, a tributary of the Colorado of the West. Along 
this river are intervals of some extent, but separated 
from each other by ranges of mountains and mesas 
that abut upon the river. No one of these intervals is 
large enough for a reservation for one quarter of 
these Navajos. Formidable ranges of mountains are 
near by, in which they could hide, and no force of 
troops could keep them together. This is on the sup- 
position that a reservation were selected on the San 
Juan river. Now, the cost of transportation of sup- 
plies from the Rio Grande to that point to subsist the 
Indians and to provide for the troops necessary to 
guard them in that locality would be immense, because 
the country to be traversed is difficult for the passage 
of wagons, and has long stretches through sage plains, 
without water in one or two instances of from forty 
to sixty miles. 

The San Juan runs through a country bearing 
gold, which will soon attract miners to that region ; 
and even if the Indians were placed there they would 
soon come into contact with that class of men, and 
great difficulties and complications would result there- 
from. 

The other exception to which I alluded is that 
of the Colorado Chiquito or Flax river. This is 
affluent to the Colorado of the West further down than 
the San Juan. It is subject to very great floods from 
the melting of snows on the Mogollon mountains at 
its source. When these floods have passed by, the 
river is very low, and its valleys become gradually 
covered with saline efflorescence, fatal to the growth 
of corn or wheat and the most of vegetables. Al- 
though this river runs through the old Navajo coun- 
try, and these people have lived in its vicinity for 
ages, they themselves have never planted a field of 



APPENDIX 103 

com along its banks, which may be considered as 
some evidence that it would not be a good place for a 
reservation. The distance to the Colorado Chiquito 
is nearly as great as to the San Juan, and the cost 
of transportation as much. 

I think the Navajo Indians are naturally as in- 
telligent as any Indians I know of, including the 
Pueblos. The Pueblo Indians are better informed 
than the other Indians, from their long contact with 
the influences of civilization and Christianity. The 
Pueblos are Catholics. The Navajos are all pagans 
with the exception of the Civollettanos. In Casten- 
ada's narrative of the first expedition made into New 
Mexico under Vasques de Coronada, in say 1543, 1544 
and 1545, it is set forth that Indians were found in 
pueblos as at the present day. Among these pueblos 
doubtless Catholic missionaries established churches 
and schools, and the Indians of those pueblos became 
Christianized and partially civilized. This has raised 
them very much above the nomadic Indians of the 
country in point of intelligence and gentleness. With 
the exception of one or two intervals of a few years 
each, there has been a constant state of hostility be- 
tween the people of New Mexico and the Navajo 
Indians. Even in these intervals occasional forays 
were made into the settlements to capture sheep and 
cattle. The Mexicans would follow them into their 
country to recapture the stolen stock, and would kill 
some of the Indians and capture some of the women 
and children and make slaves of them. But in times 
when open hostilities existed these efforts were in- 
creased on each side to capture stock, women and 
children, so that the country was kept in a continual 
state of commotion. This was the state of things 
when we acquired the territory from Mexico. 

To the best of my recollection Colonel Doniphan, 
who came here with General Kearney, made the first 



104 APPENDIX 

expedition into the Navajo country in 1846. Colonel 
Washington made an expedition into their country 
in the year 1849; General Sumner in 1851. From 
1851 until 1859 there was a period of comparative 
quiet, interrupted, as I have stated, by occasional 
forays, particularly on the part of the Navajos. In 
1859 war again broke out, and in 1860 the Navajos 
attacked Fort Defiance. About this time Colonel 
Miles made an expedition into their country, and also 
Colonel Bonneville; and finally General Canby made 
a long campaign against them, leading his troops in 
person. When the Texan invasion of this country 
occurred, after General Canby 's campaign against the 
Navajos, and when every soldier was employed to repel 
that invasion, then the Navajos, as well as the Apaches, 
rode over the country rough-shod. This was in the 
winter of 1861 and in the spring and summer of 1862. 
I relieved General Canby in command of the depart- 
ment; and this was the condition of the Navajos and 
Apaches at that time. 

The Indian difficulties in New Mexico, since the 
treaty with Mexico, have obliged the United States to 
keep in that Territory a force whose average strength 
has been at least three thousand men, employes and 
all reckoned in. This covers a period of eighteen 
years. A large proportion of these troops have been 
cavalry, the most expensive arm in the military service, 
especially in New Mexico, where forage is very ex- 
pensive. The horses required as remounts for this 
cavalry have to be brought across the plains from the 
States at great risk and expense. Sometimes large 
numbers have been stampeded en route and have never 
been heard from since. Many die before they reach 
this country. Those which arrive here it takes at 
least a year to acclimate ; and after this the loss of 
horses by death, by being broken down, and lost on 
scouts, and killed in action, and stolen by Indians, is 



APPENDIX 105 

enormous, compared with losses of cavalry horses in 
any other country. The same holds true of mules, 
more numerous necessarily than cavalry horses, by 
reason of the extent of country over which supplies 
have to be hauled to subsist and clothe the troops. 

In this connection I feel constrained to say that 
much of the hostility manifested by many of the peo- 
ple of New Mexico against the reservation system, 
grows out of the fact that when this system goes into 
successful operation there will be no more tribes from 
which they can capture servants, and the military 
force being reduced to a very small number, the mil- 
lions of dollars annually expended here on account 
of the military establishment will, in a great measure, 
cease. 

The number of Indians, men, women and children, 
who have been captured or bought from the Utes, and 
who live in the families of the Territory, may be safely 
set down as at least three thousand. So far as my 
observation has gone, the Mexicans treat these Indians 
with great kindness. After a while they become con- 
versant with the language, become attached to the 
families they live in, and very seldom care to run 
away. If they should attempt to run away I believe 
they would be captured by the owners. They are 
held as servants ; as " hewers of wood and drawers of 
water." In my judgment three out of four of these 
servants are Navajos. These servants do not inter- 
marry much with the Mexicans, but the women bear 
children from illicit intercourse. The offspring of this 
intercourse are considered as peons. The Indians 
upon the reservation, if properly cared for by the 
military commander, run no risk of being stolen or 
attacked. 



106 APPENDIX 

CAUSES OF THE NAVAJO WAKS 

Slavery 

Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 4, 1865. 
Chief Justice Kirby Benedict sworn: 

In August next I will have resided twelve years 
in New Mexico. I came here with the commission of 
judge, and have been a member of the supreme court 
and a judge of a district up to the present time ; since 
in the summer of 1858 I have been chief justice. 
During the earlier part of this time the Navajo Indians 
kept peaceable relations with the United States gov- 
ernment in this Territory and with the inhabitants. 
This condition of things was manifested a few days 
after my arrival, when a large deputation of the chiefs 
and principal men of the tribe came to Santa Fe and 
made a friendly visit to the governor, who was then 
also superintendent of Indian affairs in the Territory. 
A general friendship prevailed until an irritation oc- 
curred at Fort Defiance, from a negro having been 
killed at that place in a quarrel with an Indian who 
had come to the post. The negro is said to have been 
claimed as the slave of the commanding officer; satis- 
faction was required of the Navajos for the killing of 
the negro. I understand they offered to pay a sum, 
but the military exacted the delivering up of the In- 
dian who had done the killing. Excuses were alleged, 
among others, that the Indian had fled beyond the 
tribe and their reach. The military remained unsat- 
isfied, hostile feelings grew stronger and stronger on 
the part of the Navajos, and the former standing by 
their actions, the Navajos did acts of hostility directed 
firstly against the military, but which finally extended 
to and included the inhabitants of the Territory. 
Stealing, robberies and barbarities ensued, and the In- 
dians, as a tribe, became involved, until the depreda- 
tions upon life, security and property were so fre- 



APPENDIX 107 

quent and ruinous, a campaign was made against them 
under the command of Colonel Kit Carson, which 
was successful in bringing them to subjection, and 
causing a surrender as captives the principal portion 
of the tribe, men, women and children. 

The Navajos were in the habit of making forays 
upon the ranches and settlements, stealing, robbing and 
killing and carrying away captives ; the finding of 
herds and driving off sheep and other animals was 
carried on to a very ruinous extent ; the killing of 
persons did not seem so much the object of their war- 
fare as an incidental means of succeeding in other 
depredations. Sometimes, however, barbarous ven- 
geance was exhibited and a thirst for blood. They 
carried away captives, but I can not now give any 
accurate idea of the number. 

There are in the Territory a large number of 
Indians, principally females (women and children), 
who have been taken by force or stealth, or purchases, 
who have been among the various wild tribes of New 
Mexico or those adjoining. Of these a large propor- 
tion are Navajos. It is notorious that natives of this 
country have sometimes made captives of Navajo 
women and children when opportunities presented 
themselves; the custom has long existed here of buy- 
ing Indian persons, especially women and children ; 
the tribes themselves have carried on this kind of 
traffic. Destitute orphans are sometimes sold by their 
remote relations ; poor parents also make traffic of 
their children. The Indian persons obtained in any 
of the modes mentioned are treated by those who claim 
to own them as their servants and slaves. They are 
bought and sold by and between the inhabitants at a 
price as much as is a horse or an ox. Those who buy, 
detain and use them seem to confide in the long-es- 
tablished custom and practice which prevails, and did 
prevail before this country was a portion of the United 



108 APPENDIX 

States. Those who hold them are exceedingly sensi- 
tive of their supposed interest in them, and easily 
alarmed at any movements in the civil courts or other- 
wise to disposses them of their imagined property. 
The rich and those who have some quantities of prop- 
erty, are those chiefly who possess the persons I have 
mentioned ; those usually have much popular influence 
in the country, and the exertion of this influence is 
one of the means by which they hope to retain their 
grasp upon their Indian slaves. The prices have late- 
ly ranged very high. A likely girl not more than eight 
years old, healthy and intelligent, would be held at 
a value of four hundred dollars or more. When 
they grow to womanhood they sometimes become moth- 
ers from the natives of the land, with or without mar- 
riage. Their children, however, by the custom of 
the country, are not regarded as property which may 
be bought and sold as have been their mothers. They 
grow up and are treated as having the rights of 
citizens. They marry and blend with the general 
population. 

From my own observations I am not able to form 
an opinion satisfactory to my own mind of the number 
of Indians held as slaves or fixed domestic servants 
without their being the recipients of wages. Persons 
of high respectability for intelligence, who have made 
some calculations on the subject, estimate the number 
at various figures, from fifteen hundred to three thou- 
sand, and even exceeding the last number. The more 
prevalent opinion seems to be they considerably ex- 
ceed two thousand. 

As to federal officers holding this description of 
persons or trafficking in them, I can only say I see 
them attending the family of Governor Connelly, but 
whether claimed by himself, his wife, or both, I know 
not. I am informed the superintendent of Indian 
affairs has one in his family, but I can not state by 



APPENDIX 109 

what claim she is retained. From the social position 
occupied by the Indian agents, I presume all of them, 
except one, have the presence and assistance of the 
kind of persons mentioned; I cannot, however, state 
positively. In the spring of 1862, when Associate 
Justice Hubbell and myself conveyed our families to 
the States, he informed me at Las Vegas that he sold 
one Indian wOman to a resident of that place pre- 
paratory to crossing the plains. J. know of no law 
in this Territory by which property in a Navajo or 
other Indian can be recognized in any person whatever, 
any more than property can be recognized in the freest 
white man or black man. In 1855, while holding dis- 
trict court in the county of Valencia, a proceeding in 
habeas corpus was had before me on the part of a 
wealthy woman as petitioner, who claimed the posses- 
sion and services of a Navajo girl then twelve years 
old, and who had been held by the petitioner near 
seven years. On the trial I held the girl to be a free 
person, and adjudged accordingly. In 1862 a pro- 
ceeding in habeas corpus was instituted before me by 
an aged man who had held in service many years an 
Indian woman who had been, when a small child, 
bought from the Payweha Indians. The right of the 
master to the possession and services of the woman 
on the one side, and the right of the woman to her 
personal freedom, were put distinctly at issue. Upon 
the hearing I adjudged the woman to be a free woman ; 
I held the claim of the master to be without founda- 
tion in law and against natural rights. In each of the 
cases the party adjudged against acquiesced in the 
decision, and no appeal was ever taken. In the ex- 
amination of the cases it appeared that before the 
United States obtained New Mexico, captive and pur- 
chased Indians were held here by custom in the same 
manner they have been held since. The courts are 
open to them, but they are so influenced by the cir- 



110 APPENDIX 

cumstances which surround them they do not seem to 
think of seeking the aid of the law to establish the 
enjoyment of their rights to freedom. 

THE TROUBLE BETWEEN THE NAVAJOS AND THE SOLDIERS 

Colonel Collins sworn : 

I came to the Territory in the fall of 1827 ; I 
came as a merchant and trader. I traded back and 
forth from 1827 to 1843, making a trip once in three 
years. In 1843 I came and went into Old Mexico, and 
since then I have resided most of the time in Old and 
New Mexico ; and since the war with Mexico I have 
resided in New Mexico all the time. I was superin- 
tendent of Indian affairs from 1847 until 1863, when 
I turned over the office to Dr. Steck. 

About the commencement of June, a difficulty oc- 
curred between the Indians and the troops at Fort 
Defiance. That difficulty was occasioned by the In- 
dians allowing their animals to run on lands which 
had been set apart by an arrangement with them as 
meadow lands for cutting hay for the post. Major 
Brooks was then in command of the post. The In- 
dians were notified to keep their animals off. Finally, 
after they had been on the ground several times, a 
company of mounted men, under Captain McLane, of 
the rifles, was sent out, who ordered about seventy of 
the animals shot within the limits of the meadow. The 
result was, a very short time after this, a black boy, 
servant of Major Brooks, was killed by the Indians. 
The killing of the boy led to the war, which has con- 
tinued up to this time. 

After the killing of the boy a demand was made 
by Major Brooks on the principal men of the tribe 
for the delivery of the murderer, and were finally told 
that, unless he was given up, in thirty days war would 
be made on the tribe. 



APPENDIX 111 

At this state of the case the facts were reported 
to General Garland, who was then in command of the 
department. General Garland, though not approving 
of the course which had been pursued, still thought 
proper not to recede from the demands which had been 
made, but thought proper to exact it. The result was 
an expedition against the Indians under Colonel Miles. 
My opinion was consulted, and I advised more specific 
means, and not to commence hostilities until every 
effort had been made to secure the murderer. An 
agent was sent out, in co-operation with the troops, 
to try and get the murderer and preserve the peace. 
He failed, the Indians refusing to deliver the murder- 
er. The agent went with Captain McLane, with in- 
structions to prevent hostilities until a council could 
be held with the chiefs, but on the way Captain Mc- 
Lane met some Indians and attacked them, getting 
wounded himself. Notwithstanding this attack, the 
Indians were collected and a council held, but it re- 
sulted in nothing, the Indians stating that they had no 
authority to deliver up the murderer, but offered to 
pay any price for the negro killed. The offer was 
refused, the troops insisting upon the delivery of the 
murderer. The consequence was open hostilities. 
The troops moved against the Indians in every direc- 
tion, but they were not sufficiently damaged to bring 
them to terms. 

After hostilities commenced, I insisted, with Gen- 
eral Garland, that, as the war had been commenced, 
it should be prosecuted until the Indians sued for 
terms. General Garland concurred in this opinion, 
but was relieved about this time by Colonel Bonne- 
ville. Colonel Bonneville and myself concluded to go 
out and see the Indians at the expiration of the 
armistice, which would be about the 25th of December, 
at which time we concluded a treaty of peace with the 
Indians. My opinion was, that the war was improp- 



112 APPENDIX 

erly commenced, and was improperly concluded by 
not making the Indians comply with demand made 
upon them. 

The substance of the treaty was, that all stock 
taken during hostilities should, as far as practicable, 
be given up ; and Colonel Bonneville agreed to en- 
force the condition on his part. The treaty was never 
carried into effect, and in the summer of 1859 another 
expedition was sent against the Indians, under Major 
Simonson. He went out with instructions to enforce 
that condition of the treaty to surrender the captured 
stock. He failed to do so. That expedition was as 
great a failure as the other. Hostilities continued. The 
Indians continued their depredations, committing rob- 
beries and murders to a considerable extent, until 
1860, when General Canby took command and made 
an expedition against them. During this time the 
Mexicans turned loose upon them, captured a good 
many of their women and children. 

General Canby made an expedition in 1860. He 
was not very successful. He went into their country ; 
they asked for peace, and he made a treaty with them 
and withdrew the troops. They, however, continued 
their hostile depredations just about as before. 

About that time the Rebellion broke out and the 
Texans made their invasion. All the troops were with- 
drawn from the Navajo country. The Navajos con- 
tinued their depredations as usual, until General 
Carleton came into the -country, when he organized 
his expedition, under Kit Carson, against them. 

During the hostilities a band of friendly Indians 
of about three hundred, increased by the addition of 
those disposed to be friendly to about six hundred, 
were greatly wronged, in my opinion, at Fort Win- 
gate. There was some difficulty about a horse race. 
The Indians, I think, won the race, and the Mexican 
troops in the service refused to give up stakes, when a 




Navajo Women Shearing Sheep 



/" 




Navajo Shepherds 
(From the Southern IVorkman) 



APPENDIX 113 

quarrel arose, and the troops fired into them; some 
were killed and some were wounded. 

I cannot say that I could, but I was encouraged 
to think, but for the difficulty about the meadow lands 
and the killing of the negro boy of Major Brooks, I 
would have been able to maintain the peace with the 
Indians. 

A NAVAJO SUPERSTITION LEADS TO THE KILLING OF 
NEGRO SLAVE 

Dr. Louis Kennon sworn : 

Am a resident of New Mexico ; have been for 
twelve years last past ; am a native of Georgia ; am a 
physician by profession. 

I think the Navajos have been the most abused 
people on the continent, and that in all hostilities the 
Mexicans have always taken the initiative \^^th but one 
exception that I know of. When I first came here the 
Navajos were at peace, and had been for a long time. 
There was a pressure brought to bear upon the com- 
mander of the department by the ^Mexicans, and all 
Americans who pandered to that influence, to make 
war upon the Navajos. General Garland was com- 
mander of the Department at that time, and if you 
asked the Mexicans any reason for making war, they 
would give no other reason, but that the Navajos had 
a great many sheep and horses and a great many 
children. General Garland resisted their pressure 
until the unfortunate killing of a negro belonging to 
an officer at the post. The circumstances as I heard 
them are these: 

Among the Navajos there is a great equality be- 
tween the men and women ; women owti their own 
property independent of their husbands, and having 
property, are entitled to vote in the councils. They 
are also at liberty, if dissatisfied with their husbands, 



114 APPENDIX 

to leave them at will; but when they do so the hus- 
band asks to wipe out the disgrace by killing some 
one. A case of this kind occurred. 

An Indian of a wealthy and influential family, 
had been deserted by his wife in this way, and he 
having had some real or imagined ill-treatment from 
this negro slave belonging to Major Brooks, of the 
3rd Infantry, killed him. A demand was made for 
the surrender of the murderer, or war would follow. 
He was secreted by his family. The Indians killed 
some other Indian and brought in his body, insisting 
that it was the body of the murderer, killed while 
escaping from arrest. But the soldiers knew the mur- 
derer well, and they knew the folly of this pretense, 
so the demand was still insisted upon. 

Meantime some Navajos near Albuquerque were 
murdered and robbed by Mexicans, and the Navajos 
made demand for the surrender of the murderers by 
General Garland. This was refused, and the surren- 
der still insisted upon of the Indian who murdered 
the negro. The Indians offered to pay for the negro, 
but failed to surrender the murderer. War ensued, 
and there has been no permanent peace since. There 
have been intervals of quiet, but no substantial peace. 
Previous to the killing of the negro, the post had been 
in command of two very able and philanthropic gentle- 
men, Majors Kendricks and Backus, who kept the 
Navajos at peace by keeping the Mexicans away from 
them. 

I was in the service of the United States as acting 
assistant surgeon, and was stationed at Fort Defiance 
in 1858, and was on a campaign against the Indians 
under Colonel Canby, and was in active service two 
months, scouting over the country, and therefore I 
know something about the country. In the old Nava- 
jo country the grazing facilities are inexhaustible. I 



APPENDIX 115 

saw no evidence of minerals; it is a red sandstone 
country, in which minerals do not exist. 

I think the number of captive Navajo Indians 
held as slaves to be underestimated. I think there are 
from five to six thousand. I know of no family which 
can raise one hundred and fifty dollars but what pur- 
chases a Navajo slave, and many families own four 
or five — the trade in them being as regular as the 
trade in pigs or sheep. Previous to the war their 
price was from seventy-five to one hundred dollars; 
but now they are worth about four hundred dollars. 
But the other day some Mexican Indians from Chi- 
huahua were for sale in Santa Fe. I have been con- 
versant with the institution of slavery in Georgia, but 
the system is worse here, there being no obligation to 
care for the slave when he becomes old or worthless. 

APPOINTMENT OP INDIAN AGENTS 

Treatment of the Navajos hy Mexicans 

Major Griner sworn: 

I first came to this Territory in 1851, staid until 
1854, and then, again, in 1862, where I have remained 
since, witli the exception of the time of the Texan 
invasion. I came here first as Indian agent, and was 
at first assigned to duty at Taos, as agent for the 
Apaches and Utes, but afterwards acted as general 
superintendent under Governor Calhoun, and trav- 
elled over pretty much all the Territory. I was In- 
dian agent from 1851 until 1853, being then appointed 
secretary. 

The great difficulty in our Indian policy is in the 
selection of Indian agents, who are generally appoint- 
ed for political services. Mr. Wingfield came here as 
an agent because he was the friend of Mr. Dawson 
of Georgia; Mr. Wolly, an old man of seventy years 
of age, because he was the friend of Mr. Clay; Mr. 



116 APPENDIX 

Weightman, because he wished to be returned as 
delegate; and myself, because I could sing a good 
political song. Neither of us was by habit or educa- 
tion better fitted to be Indian agent than to follow 
any other business. The general policy of selecting 
men as agents for political services, rather than fit- 
ness for the position, and frequently changing them, 
is a great cause of all our Indian difficulties, in my 
opinion. I was changed just as I was about to be of 
service, and had become acquainted with the Indians, 
and had acquired their confidence, and could get them 
to do as I desired. 

When I left here I went away with a high 
opinion of the system adopted by the Spaniards — I 
mean the pueblos, which are reservations. I look 
upon them as models, and their government as models 
for Indians. Their governments are entirely demo- 
cratic ; they select their own officers and administer 
their own laws. At first they had no farms, and de- 
pended on their own industry for subsistence, and 
none have ever been found guilty of a criminal of- 
fense. The only difficulty in our government doing 
as the Spaniards did is on account of religion. The 
Spaniards planted a church in the center of each 
pueblo, the priest naming the babies and baptizing 
them ; and the priest was in fact the agent of the 
Spanish government, and had charge of the temporal 
as well as the spiritual affairs. This of course would 
be impracticable under our government. 

In my experience I have never known a serious 
difficulty in the Territory between the Indians and 
citizens which did not originate mainly with the latter. 
One of the first exciting difficulties in the Territory 
arose from the capture of Mrs. V/hite, a very beau- 
tiful woman, and her little daughter, by the Jicarilla 
Apaches. I was appointed to investigate it. I found 
that at Las Vegas the troops had, v/ithout any suffi- 



APPENDIX 117 

cient cause or provocation, fired upon the Indians, 
and they in revenge joined with some Utes and at- 
tacked the next train coming from the States, killing 
Mr. White and others, and capturing his wife and 
child; and also the stage, with ten passengers, was 
taken and all killed. A war was the consequence. 

Another instance on the part of Mangus Colorado, 
the chief of the Apaches : During my administra- 
tion as acting superintendent of Indian affairs I was 
present with General Sumner to make a treaty of 
peace. He was an Indian of remarkable intelligence 
and great character. I asked him the cause of the 
difficulties with the people in Chihuahua and Sonora, 
for at that time, under the treaty with Mexico, we 
were bound to protect its people from the attacks of 
the Indians residing in New Mexico. He said: "I 
will tell you. Sometime ago my people were invited 
to a feast; aguardiente, or whiskey, was there; my peo- 
ple drank and became intoxicated, and were lying 
asleep, when a party of Mexicans came in and beat 
out their brains with clubs. At another time a trader 
was sent among us from Chihuahua. While inno- 
cently engaged in trading, often leading to words of 
anger, a cannon concealed behind the goods was fired 
upon my people and quite a number were killed. 
Since that Chihuahua has offered a reward for our 
scalps, $150 each, and we have been hunted down 
ever since"; and, with great emphasis and in the 
most impressive manner, he added, "How can we 
make peace with such people?" 

I have also since learned from the agent of the 
tribe. Dr. Steck, that sixty Indians of the same tribe" 
were poisoned by strychnine. The whole country of 
Sonora and Chihuahua has been devastated by these 
Indians. This same chief was afterwards taken pris- 
oner by our own troops and confined in the guard 
house, and was killed while so confined by the sentinel. 



118 APPENDIX 

The Navajos, while Mr. Dodge was their agent 
and Major Kendrick and Major Backus in command 
of the posts in their country, were friendly and peace- 
able, owing to the prudence and wisdom with which 
those officers discharged the duties of their stations, 
and, in my opinion, had they remained, or persons 
of equal prudence, there would not have been any 
hostilities on the part of the Navajos. There was a 
change of agents and military commanders in their 
country, and a war broke out in the consequence of 
the killing of a negro boy of Major Brooks', as I am 
informed. Another cause of trouble has been in con- 
sequence of the capture of their flocks and herds, 
and their women and children for servants. 

About a year ago a Navajo travelling with his 
wife and two or three children was shot dowoi by 
a company of Mexican troops. He defended himself 
bravely to the last, but he was killed and scalped — 
one of the party giving me an account of it, saying his 
bravery won their admiration. He brought me the 
scalp, which I now present to the committee. 

PLANS OP THE MILITARY TO SUBJUGATE THE NAVAJOS 

Headquarters Department of New Mexico, 

Santa Fe, New Mexico, 
September 30, 1862. 
General : 

I have the honor to inform you that I relieved 
General Canby in the command of this department 
on the 18th instant, and he left this city for Wash- 
ingion, D. C, four days afterwards. I find that dur- 
ing the raid which was made into this Territory by 
some armed men from Texas, under Brigadier Gen- 
eral Sibley, of the army of the so-called Confederate 
States, the Indians, aware that the attention of our 
troops could not, for the time, be turned toward 



APPENDIX 119 

them, commenced robbing the inhabitants of their 
stock, and killed, in various places, a great number 
of people ; the Navajos on the western side, and the 
Mescalero Apaches on the eastern side of the settle- 
ments both committing these outrages at the same 
time, and during the last year that has passed have 
left the people greatly impoverished. Many farms 
and settlements near Fort Stanton have been entirely 
abandoned. 

To punish and control the Mescaleros, I have 
ordered Fort Stanton to be reoccupied. That post 
is in the heart of their country, and hitherto when 
troops occupied it those Indians were at peace. 1 
have sent Colonel Christopher Carson (Kit Carson) 
with five companies of his regiment of New Mexican 
volunteers, to Fort Stanton. One of these companies, 
on foot, will hold the post and guard the stores, while 
four companies mounted, under Carson, will operate 
against the Indians until they have been punished 
for their recent aggressions. The lieutenant colonel, 
with four companies of the same regiment, will move 
into the Navajo country and establish and garrison 
a post on the Gallo, which was selected by General 
Canby; it is called Fort Wingate. I shall endeavor 
to have this force, assisted by some militia which have 
been called out by the governor of the Territory, per- 
form such services among the Navajos as will bring 
them to feel that they have been doing wrong. 

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient 
servant James H. Carleton, 

Brigadier General Commanding. 

Brigadier General Lorenzo Thomas, 
Adjutant General, U. S. A., 
Washington, D. C. 



120 APPENDIX 

KIT CARSON INVADES THE NAVAJOS' STRONGHOLD AND 
CAPTURES MANY PRISONERS 

Headquarters Department of New Mexico, 

Las Cruees, New Mexico, 

February 7, 1864. 
General : 

I have the honor herewith to inclose a copy of the 
report of Colonel Christopher Carson, commanding 
the expedition against the Navajo Indians, of his 
success in marching a command through the celebrat- 
ed Canyon de Chelly, the great stronghold of that 
tribe, and of the killing of twenty-three of the war- 
riors and the capture of a large number of prisoners. 
These prisoners are now en route to the Bosque Ke- 
dondo. 



This is the first time any troops, whether when 
the country belonged to Mexico or since we acquired 
it, have been able to pass through the Canyon de 
Chelly, which, for its great depth, its length, its per- 
pendicular walls, and its labyrinthine character, has 
been regarded by eminent geologists as the most re- 
markable of any ''fissure" (for such it is held to be) 
upon the face of the globe. It has been the great 
fortress of the tribe since time out of mind. To this 
point they fled when pressed by our troops. Colonel 
Washington, Colonel Sumner, and many other com- 
manders have made an attempt to go through it, but 
had to retrace their steps. It was reserved for Colonel 
Carson to be the first to succeed; and I respectfully 
request the government will favorably notice that 
officer, and give him a substantial reward for this 
cro^vning act in a long life spent in various capacities 





Crossing the Desert 
{From ihe Soul hern ii^'orknran) 



APPENDIX 121 

in the service of his country in fighting the savages 
among the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains. 

I believe this will be the last Navajo war. The 
persistent efforts which have been and will continue 
to be made can hardly fail to bring in the whole tribe 
before the year ends. I beg respectfully to call the 
serious attention of the government to the destitute 
condition of the captives, and beg for authority to 
provide clothing for the women and children. Every 
preparation will be made to plant large crops for their 
subsistence at the Bosque Eedondo the coming spring. 
Whether the Indian department will do anything for 
these Indians or not you will know. But whatever is 
to be done should be done at once. At all events, as I 
before wrote you, "we can feed them cheaper than we 
can fight them.^^ 

I am, general, very respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 
James H. Carleton, 
Brigadier General, Commanding. 

Brigadier General Lorenzo Thomas, 

Adjutant General U. S. A., 

Washington, D. C. 

KIT CARSON RECEIVES HONORABLE MENTION FOR SUB- 
DUING THE NAVAJOS 

Headquarters Department of New Mexico, 

Santa Fe, N. M., February 27, 1864. 
General : 

What with the Navajos I have captured and those 
who have surrendered we have now over three thou- 
sand, and will, without doubt, soon have the whole 
tribe. I do not believe they number now much over 
five thousand, all told. You have doubtless seen the 



122 APPENDIX 

last of the Navajo war — a war that has been con- 
tinued with but few intermissions for one hundred 
and eighty years, and which, during that time, has 
been marked by every shade of atrocity, brutality 
and ferocity which can be imagined or which can be 
I found in the annals of conflict between our own and 

the aboriginal race. 

I beg to congratulate you and the country at 
large on the prospect that this formidable band of 
robbers and murderers have at last been made to 
succumb. To Colonel Christopher Carson, first cav- 
alry New Mexico volunteers, Capt. Asa B. Casey, 
United States Army, and the officers and men who 
served in the Navajo campaign, the credit for these 
successes is mainly due. ****** 

I am, general, very respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 
James H. Carleton, 
Brigadier General, Commanding. 

Brigadier General Lorenzo Thomas, 

Adjutant General U. S. A., 

Washington, D. C. 

REPORT OF THE CONDITION OP THE NAVAJO PRISONERS 
OP WAR AT THE BASQUE REDONDO, NEW MEXICO 

Headquarters Department of New Mexico, 

Santa Fe, N. M., March 12, 1864. 
General : 

Since writing to you on the 6th instant in rela- 
tion to the Navajo Indians, I have been informed that 
there are now three thousand of them — men, women 
and children — who have surrendered at Fort Canby, 
and are about starting for the Bosque Redondo. These, 
with those now at that place and enroute thither, will 
make five thousand five hundred, without including 
the captive Mescalero Apaches. There will doubtless 



APPENDIX 123 

be more Navajos come into Fort Canby — what are 
known as the Ricos of the tribe — men who have 
stock, and will doubtless be able to subsist themselves 
upon that stock until we are better prepared to take 
care of them. Colonel Carson has been instructed to 
send in the poor and destitute first. The Ricos will 
come in afterwards. Among the poor are nearly or 
quite all the ladrones and murderers, so that we have 
already in our hands the bad men of the tribe. An 
exact census will be taken of the Ricos, and a state- 
ment made of the probable amount of their stock, 
which has hitherto been greatly exaggerated, in my 
opinion. When this is done, Colonel Carson will him- 
self come in from the Navajo country and go down 
to the Bosque Redondo to give the Indians the counsel 
they so much need just at this time as to how to start 
their farms and to commence their new mode of life. 
You have from time to time been informed of every 
step which I have taken with reference to operations 
against Indians in this country. I multiplied, as 
much as possible, the points of contact between our 
forces and themselves, and, although no great battle 
has been fought, still the persistent efforts of small 
parties acting simultaneously over a large extent of 
country, have destroyed a great many and harrassed 
the survivors until they have become thoroughly sub- 
dued. Now, when they have surrendered and are at 
our mercy, they must be taken care of — must be fed, 
clothed and instructed. This admits neither of dis- 
cussion nor delay. These six thousand mouths must 
eat, and these six thousand bodies must be clothed. 
When it is considered what a magnificent pastoral 
and mineral country they have surrendered — a coun- 
try whose value can hardly be estimated — the mere 
pittance, in comparison, which must at once be given 
to support them, sinks into insignificance as a price 
for their natural heritage. 



124 APPENDIX 

They must have two million pounds of bread- 
stuffs sent from the States. This can be done by 
installments — the first installment to be started at 
once; say five hundred thousand pounds of flour and 
corn, in equal parts. The next installment to reach 
the Bosque in August next, and all to be delivered by 
the middle of next November. This amount will last 
them, with what we can buy here, until the crops 
come off in 1865 ; when from that time forward, so 
far as food may go, they will, in my opinion, be self- 
sustaining. 

Add to these breadstuffs four thousand head of 
cattle, to come by installments of five hundred each 
— the first to reach the Bosque by the first of July 
next, and all to be there by the middle of November. 
Salt can be bought here, but you can not buy the 
breadstuffs or the meat; they are not in the country, 
and consequently can not be got at any price. In 
view of the contingencies of delays, accidents, etc., I 
have put all the troops on half rations, and, at most 
of the posts, ordered that no grain be issued to cavalry 
horses. These six thousand people must be fed until 
you can get us relieved by sending supplies, as above 
named, from the States. This matter, being of para- 
mount importance, is alluded to here as the first 
which will claim your attention or, rather, your ac- 
tion ; for the matter is imperative — is self evident ; 
it needs no deliberation, as you will see, and admits 
of no delay. 

Next comes the wherewithal to <;lothe these poor 
women and these little children. You will find in a 
duplicate of the letter which I wrote to you on the 
6th of March, and which is herewith inclosed, a list 
of such articles as are absolutely needed now. 

Then come agricultural implements, which must 
be here to insure the crops. Then the tools, cooking 



APPENDIX 125 

utensils, etc., etc., lists of which you will also find 
enveloped with this letter. 

I beg to call your attention to the most important 
consideration — the management of the Navajos upon 
the reservation. The amount of ability and business 
habits and tact necessary in one who should be se- 
lected to direct these people in their work, and in the 
systematic employment of their seasons of labor — 
in one having forecast to see their coming wants and 
necessities, and having resources of practical sense 
to provide for those wants and necessities — in one 
who w^ould have the expending of the funds which 
must be appropriated for their support — cannot be 
commanded for the sum of fifteen hundred dollars 
per annum, given to an Indian agent. The law to 
be framed granting an annuity to the tribe should 
also provide for a supervisoi; with a salary at least 
of three thousand dollars a year, and an assistant sup- 
ervisor, with a salary equal to that of an Indian 
agent. These men should be selected with great care. 
The assistant supervisor should be apt at accounts — 
practical as a man of business — of resources as a 
farmer and as a mechanic — of patience, industry 
and temperance — one whose heart would be in his 
business, and who would himself believe that his time 
belonged to the government, and need not be spent 
mainly in "grinding axes" elsewhere at the expense 
of the United States. The superintendent need have, 
and should have, no further control than simply to 
audit the accounts. 

If all this be set forth in the law, so far as salary 
and duties go, the whole plan will go into successful 
operation at once. If not set forth in the law, you 
may depend upon it, general, that, with the changes 
in superintendents — with diverse counsels and di- 
verse interests, and lack of fixedness of purpose and 
system — the Indians will not be properly cared for, 



126 APPENDIX 

and, in room of becoming a happy, prosperous and 
contented people, will become sad and desponding, 
and will soon lapse into idle and intemperate habits. 
You wish them to become a people whom all can 
contemplate with pride and satisfaction as proteges 
of the United States — a people who, in return for 
having given you their country, have been remem- 
bered and carefully provided for by a powerful 
Christian nation like ourselves. But unless you make 
in the law all the arrangements here contemplated, 
you will find this interesting and intelligent race of 
Indians will fast diminish in numbers, until, within 
a few years only, not one of those who boasted in the 
proud name of Navajo will be left to upbraid us for 
having taken their birthright, and then left them to 
perish. 

With other tribes whose lands we have acquired, 
ever since the Pilgrims stepped on shore at Plymouth, 
this has been done too often. For pity's sake, if not 
moved by any other consideration, let us, as a great 
nation, for once treat the Indian as he deserves to 
be treated. It is due to ourselves as well as to them, 
that this be done. 

Having this purpose in view, I am sure the law- 
makers will not be ungenerous; nor will they be un- 
mindful of all those essential points which, In chang- 
ing a people from a nomadic to an agricultural condi- 
tion of life, should be kept in view, in order to guard 
them against imposition, to protect them in their 
rights, to encourage them in their labors, and to pro- 
vide for all their reasonable wants. 

The exodus of this whole people from the land 
of their fathers is not only an interesting but a touch- 
ing sight. They have fought us gallantly for years 
on years; they have defended their mountains and 
their stupendous canyons with a heroism which any 
people might be proud to emulate; but when, at 



APPENDIX 127 

length, they found it was their destiny too, as it had 
been that of their brethren, tribe after tribe, away 
back toward the rising of the sun, to give way to the 
insatiable progress of our race, they threw down their 
arms, and, as brave men entitled to our admiration 
and respect, have come to us with confidence in our 
magnanimity, and feeling that we are too powerful 
and too just a people to repay that confidence with 
meanness or neglect — feeling that for having sacri- 
ficed to us their beautiful country, their homes, the 
associations of their lives, the scenes rendered classic 
in their traditions, we will not dole out to them a 
miser's pittance in return for what we know to be a 
princely realm. 

This is a matter of such vital importance that I 
can not intrust to the accidents of a mail, but trans- 
mit this letter and its accompanying papers by a 
special messenger — Colonel James L. Collins, late 
superintendent of Indian affairs — who can be con- 
sulted with profit not only by the War and Interior 
Departments, but by the proper committees in Con- 
gress, whose attention will have to be called at once 
to the subject. 

******* 

1 am, general, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 
James H. Carleton, 
Brigadier General, Commanding. 

Brigadier General Lorenzo Thomas, 

Adjutant General U. S. A., 

Washington, D. C. 



128 



APPENDIX 



TWENTY YEARS AFTER THE WAR 

Beport of the United States Indian Agent on the Con- 
dition of the Navajo Indians 

United States Indian Service, 
Navajo Agency, N. Mex., August 12, 1889. 
Sir: 

If not an impossibility, it is at least a very diffi- 
cult matter, to obtain a full and correct census of the 
tribe. Twenty years ago when the Government re- 
turned them to the reservation from their banishment 
to Texas, they numbered from 12,000 to 13,000 in 
addition to which there were nearly 400 who were 
never captured and who remained in the mountains 
until the return of their brethren. Since then the 
population has increased at a moderate rate, and from 
the most reliable information obtainable I should 
judge it is now in the neighborhood of 21,000. This 
number is divided into ten clans, each of which has a 
chief, as follows : 



CLAN 


CHIEF 


Man That Went Around 


White Head 


Black Sheep 


Son of His Father 


Close to Streams 


Balgoonda 


Big Water 


Gano Muncho and Manuelito 


Bitter Water 


Be-tchi-bnu 


Meeting the Water 


Sandoval 


Blackwood 


Sin-in-is-Ky 


Leaves 


Long Back 


Red Bank 


Mariana 


Band That Escaped 


Loud Man 



The principal wealth of the Navajos is their stock, 
which, like the population, it is a difficult matter to 




A Navajo Athlete 



APPENDIX 129 

estimate, but from the most reliable information at 
hand I should say is about as follows: 

Horses 250,000 

Mules 500 

Burros 1,000 

Cattle ■ 5,000 

Sheep 700,000 

Goats 200,000 

By common consent the sheep are considered the 
property of the women, and are clipped in the spring 
and fall each year. In the past twelve months I 
should judge the crop to be about 2,100,000 pounds. 
Of this the seven traders on the reservation have pur- 
chased more than they did a year ago, but by far the 
greater portion of it has been marketed with the 
thirty-odd traders who surround the reservation at 
different points, and with stores on the railroad at 
points from twelve to twenty miles from the reser- 
vation. 

In addition to his stock the Indian counts his 
wealth by his beads and silver ornaments. The 
only money known to him is silver coin. After sup- 
plying his wants of food and clothing his surplus cash 
is converted into ornaments by native workmen, which 
are worn on the body or used on trappings for his 
horses. When he becomes hard up, between harvests, 
which is by no means uncommon, these ornaments 
are pawned with the traders, but are invariably re- 
deemed. 

The Navajo has always been taught to estimate 
his wealth by the number of horses he owns, and 
there are many who own hundreds of heads each, 
while a few count their possessions by thousands. As 
these animals do not command good prices off the 
reservation, and as they are rapidly increasing in 
numbers, the Indian is beginning to look about for a 



130 APPENDIX 

means of increasing his wealth in other shape. Quite 
a number of them are turning their attention to cattle 
raising and are trading their horses for calves wher- 
ever they can do so. In this I encourage them when- 
ever the opportunity presents itself, because cattle 
are as easily raised as horses and a market can always 
be found for them at fair cash prices. 

The reservation contains nearly 2,250,000* acres, 
which for picturesque grandeur can not be excelled 
in the United States, but considered as a farming 
country would require an elastic imagination to pro- 
duce a favorable comment. The altitude of the coun- 
try ranges from 5,000 to 7,500 feet above sea level and 
is never favored with rain at a season of the year 
when growing grain can derive any benefit from it. 
Where there is any soil it is sandy, but produces 
well when water can be had for irrigation. I do not 
suppose there are over 50,000 acres of tillable soil on 
the reservation, although the mountains in many 
places furnish ample pasture for stock. In the past 
year the Indians have cultivated about 8,000 acres. 
Their crops are looking well, particularly wheat, and 
promise a good harvest. In the past year, the De- 
partment furnished me for distribution among the 
tribe fifty bushels of wheat, some potatoes, and a 
small assortment of garden seeds. The supply was 
soon exhausted and fell far short of meeting the 
demand. Owing to the abundance of snow which 
falls here in the winter and the dry weather which 
follows in the spring, it is my opinion that winter 
wheat can be successfully grown on the reservation, 
and I will ask that a sufificient quantity for seeding 
be furnished this season. 

I am informed that last year the Department 
spent $12,000 on the construction of irrigation ditches 



»Now 9,503,763 acres. 



APPENDIX 131 

on the reservation. I have been over the ground 
where the work was done, and am sorry to say that 
it amounts to nothing. The ditches were evidently 
built without any regard to utility, durability, or 
knowledge of the subject. In many places the alleged 
ditch was merely a furrow turnecl with a plow. No 
care was ever taken of them, and even if they had 
been constructed in a workmanlike manner they would 
have been useless this year, as the Indians of their own 
accord will take no care of them, and from this cause 
the crop last year was a failure. Where irrigation 
is undertaken in a sensible manner there is no reason 
why the crops should fail. There are many valleys 
on the reservation where storage reservoirs could be 
constructed which would hold a sufficient quantity 
of water to thoroughly irrigate all the tillable land in 
the neighborhood. As the Indian will not keep ditches 
in repair, the reservation should be divided into four 
districts for irrigation purposes and each should be 
placed in charge of a competent farmer, whose duty 
it would be to see that all the ditches and laterals are 
kept in good repair, and at the same time assist and 
instruct the Indians in farming. Until some such 
plan as this is adopted and followed, irrigation by the 
Indians will be a failure. If it is adopted and fol- 
lowed the Indians will soon learn to take care of 
themselves, and in a few years will become inde- 
pendent of any assistance or information from the 
whites. In this connection it is proper to state that 
Lieut. J. M. Stotzenburg, of the Sixth Cavalry, is 
now engaged in making a survey of the reservation 
for irrigating purposes, and will submit a report in a 
short time. 

On the first of February last nearly a third of 
the tribe were off the reservation, many of them 
being scattered along the line of the railroad, and 
very few of them doing any good for themselves or 



132 APPENDIX 

others. Since that time about 150 families have been 
induced to return and resume their residence, where 
they properly belong and where every Navajo should 
be. It will doubtless take some time to get them all 
back, but if a time is specified in which to do the 
work, I anticipate no trouble in bringing about the 
desired end. 

The influence of the chiefs is rapidly waning and 
has almost disappeared. It is very seldom their ad- 
vice is sought — never in matters of general import- 
ance — and when offered it is rarely accepted. When 
disputes occur which cannot be settled among them- 
selves, the matter is generally laid before the agent, 
whose decision and advice are accepted in good faith 
by the interested parties. But I am sorry to say the 
medicine men still exert a bad influence over the 
members of the tribe, although they are losing ground 
and many come in to consult the agency physician. 
Like many other tribes the Navajos are, unfortunately, 
the victims of that loathsome disease, syphilis, and 
being transmissable from one generation to another, 
it is constantly becoming more widespread. It is a 
source of much regret that present facilities render 
it utterly impossible to eradicate this fearful malady 
and the many ills resulting therefrom. A hospital 
at the agency, where protracted treatment could be 
enforced, offers the only hope of permanent relief, as 
the Indian cannot be relied upon to persevere in the 
protracted use of remedies. It is confidently believed 
that with the proper facility for eliminating this con- 
taminating and fatal disease, the sanitary condition 
of these hardy people could be brought almost to 
perfection, as nine-tenths of all their numerous com- 
plaints are traceable thereto. 

Another matter to which I wish to call the atten- 
tion of the Department is the need of an industrial 
school here at which the older boys can be taught 



APPENDIX 133 

trades. They are all ^^^lling to learn, and, in making 
improvements or repairs at the agency, display an 
aptitude which is at once surprising and gratifying. 
It may be urged against the teaching of such branches 
here that the government has made ample provisions 
for such instruction at other schools to which these 
children may be sent. Granted. But on the other 
hand there are many reasons why such a school should 
be established here. By reference to statistics I find 
that the Navajos represent nearly one-twelfth of the 
entire Indian population of the United States, though 
in reality I believe one-tenth would be nearer correct, 
and they are steadily increasing in population. In 
point of numbers, then, the reservation would support 
such a school. The government has sent a sawmill 
here to cut lumber for the Indians with which they 
may build houses. All who can avail themselves of 
the benefits to be derived from it wish to do so, and 
daily I have applications for materials and tools. 
None of these Indians are carpenters, and must of 
course labor under great disadvantages in building 
unless they bring to their assistance white labor, Avhich 
is very expensive in this locality. Of course, under 
such circumstances, they all fully appreciate the bene- 
fits to be derived from the knowledge of the trades and 
want their children to learn one. There are a number 
of the boys who want to learn to be tinners. Some 
want to be wagonmakers ; some blacksmiths, and the 
proportions of the school at present would warrant 
the establishment of a tailor shop and shoemaker shop. 
The school quarters, which were built to accommodate 
sixty pupils, are now crowded to overflowing with 
ninety-nine pupils from all portions of the reserva- 
tion, and representing the most thrifty and enterpris- 
ing families among the Navajos. 

Nothing will induce the Navajo to send his child- 
ren away from the reservation to attend school. His 



134 APPENDIX 

affection for his offspring is equal to that of any race 
of people on the face of the earth. He visits his child- 
ren at the school frequently, and when he does not 
reside too far away, likes to take them home with him 
occasionally for a day or two for recreation. He 
wants them near him, so that he can go and see them 
at any time. In case of sickness of a child at school 
it is remarkable how quickly his parents find it out, 
and come to see him, or should a parent be taken sick 
at home the children are immediately sent after. The 
Navajo is also very superstitious, which will not allow 
him to send his children off the reservation to school. 
Some years ago, Manuelito, the famous war chief of 
the tribe, lost two sons by death while attending school 
in the East, and since then no Navajo will listen to a 
proposition to send a child of his to an Eastern school. 

But aside from these reasons I think it better that 
the industrial branches be taught at home where their 
parents can see them at work and witness the advan- 
tages to be derived from such an education. These 
Indians are close observers, and take much more in- 
terest in work done by their own people than when 
it is manufactured by the whites. Send an Indian 
East to educate him for the benefit of his tribe, and 
should he take a notion to remain among the whites, 
as was the case in the only instance under my obser- 
vation here, it is a discouragement to the Department 
in its efforts to benefit the red man, inasmuch as it 
works no good to the Indians, but on the contrary 
causes them to prefer the company of their sons at 
home in ignorance rather than risk sending them away 
for an education with the chance of never seeing them 
again. 

Polygamy is still practiced on the reservation, but 
to a very limited extent, and is discouraged as much 
as possible. The Navajos are fond of gambling. Some 
of them follow it for a living, and most of them are 



APPENDIX 135 

willing to engage in it whenever an opportunity offers. 
When a crowd of them met at the agency it was the 
custom to spread a blanket anywhere and indulge 
their favorite proclivity. This led to petty thieving 
in several cases, which I promptly punished and 
broke up the indulgence in this locality. This is 
the sum total of the sins of 21,000 ignorant and un- 
civilized American Indians as has been reported to 
me in a little over five months, and the Navajos in- 
variably report the wrong doings of their neighbors. 
Can any community of like numbers in the civilized 
world make as good- a showing? 

It has been reported that rich mineral ores, par- 
ticularly silver, abound on certain portions of the 
reservation and would likely cause trouble between 
the Indians and adventurous prospectors. In the 
latter part of March it was reported to me that a band 
of miners and cow-boys was being organized at Gallup, 
New Mexico, for the purpose of invading the reser- 
vation in search of mineral. The report proved to be 
correct, but, after a talk with the leaders, I persuaded 
them to desist, and the expedition was abandoned. 
I am informed that several have lost their lives in 
adventurous search for this mythical wealth, and it 
is not surprising. The mountains which are said to 
contain this alleged wealth are the Navajos' place 
of worship. When they are sick they go there to 
effect a cure, and it is their belief that if they are 
invaded by the white man they will die. Add to this 
the fact that the white man has no business there, 
and it is not surprising that he finds it exceedingly 
dangerous. I have investigated all these stories of 
mineral wealth as thoroughly as circumstances would 
permit, and find there is nothing in them. Mineral 
does not exist on the reservation, but if it was in 
paying quantities the Indian would not be slow to 
avail himself of it. 



136 APPENDIX 

Aside from the regular Sabbath exercises in the 
school by the superintendent, the Navajos are without 
religious instruction, and do not seem to be considered 
fit subjects for missionary work by any of the great 
religious denominations of the world. Still these 
Indians are religiously inclined, and all their cere- 
monies are religious in character, though not of the 
orthodox requirements. While remembering in a 
substantial way the heathen of other lands and warm- 
er climes, the Navajo of the United States should not 
be entirely blotted from memory. 

Very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 

C. E. Vandevtir, 
United States Indian Agent. 
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 



Author's Note: — There are now in the Navajo 
country Missions maintained by the Methodists, Bap- 
tists, Episcopalians, Catholics, Presbyterians and 
Dutch Reform churches. 



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